


Hollow Legacy

by Mattskitchen67



Category: RWBY
Genre: A lot of reimagined character motivations and backstories, Also some setting and worldbuilding changes, Alternate Universe, F/F, Hollow Legacy AU, It's an AU folks, Slow burn plot and romance, everyone is ooc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-16
Updated: 2019-03-09
Packaged: 2019-06-28 01:02:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 32
Words: 151,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15696960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mattskitchen67/pseuds/Mattskitchen67
Summary: Ruby Rose is trying her best to lead her new team of Hunters-in-training at Beacon Academy. While managing the crazy and dangerous lives of her new friends, a growing conflict between the forces trying to protect Remnant and the ones who would threaten it, throw Ruby and her team into a chaotic world where their friendship and ideals will be tested.





	1. Prologue

_“I think I was five. I remember Yang pulling me down this bumpy dirt road in our red wagon. I was really young so I didn’t really get what was going on, but it was really cold and honestly, my biggest fear was that we were going to get rained on._

_“Yang looked really tired. It felt like she’d been pulling me through that forest for hours. Heck, it was dark enough to have been hours. One of the wheels had bad traction, so part of the time it was just skidding across the ground. Yang didn’t care though._

_“I remember at some point I pulled myself up to the edge and asked how far away from home we were. Yang was panting for air but never stopped trekking up that road. She said that we were ‘almost there’ and that ‘she’ would be there. Yang looked back at me and grinned. She always tried to cheer me up when I was down, and it always worked when I was that little. I smiled back, but it was really cold and the weather was starting to get crazy. The cloak Mom gave me helped, but it didn’t do a good job blocking out all the wind._

_“Eventually, we reached the gate. Yang’s map showed that the house in the photo was just up the road. She started pulling the wagon really fast. I started to get excited with Yang, but as soon as the house came into view she slowed down. The house was still there, but the windows were all busted, the porch had collapsed, the front door was barely attached to a single hinge, and the rest of the door frame had rotted._

_“Yang started sprinting towards the house while pulling the cart behind her, and I managed to hold on somehow. Every trace of Yang’s ‘big sister who is always cheerful and confident’ persona was gone. I think it was the only time that she felt like just another kid to me._

_“She finally stopped a few meters in front of what was left of the porch. She caught her breath and stared up at the ruined house. ‘No one’s here,’ she said. She turned her face from me to hide that she was crying._

_“The most I remember about that year was that everyone was sad all the time. Yang and Dad were always yelling at each other, and I couldn’t do anything about it. I just wanted Mom to come back and make them stop..._

_“Yeah, where was I? It was really dark, but I could hear something large moving through the trees. Some branches snapped, and even at that age, I could tell that there was more than one of them. Yang noticed them pretty quick too. Something started, like, scraping against the side of the house. I remember hearing this really heavy breathing getting louder and louder with every exhale._

_“A Beowolf came around the house and looked right at us. It was the first time that I ever really saw one, but I recognized it from Mom’s books. We were petrified. Two more came out of the woods. One stood up on its hind legs and looked directly at me. Its eyes weren’t full of hunger or fear like you’d expect from an animal. They weren't even sinister or evil like the kids’ books. The textbooks, stories, hell, even Beacon doesn’t tell you this, but… its eyes were full of pure hatred._

_“All three lunged at us at the same time. Their claws were right on top of us; I could hear them whistling through the air, and I couldn’t even close my eyes. They were going to tear us apart and I couldn’t even look away._

_“Then, they disappeared. And in their place, Yang was standing there, arms stretched out, her golden hair blowing in the wind and looking larger than life. Her feet were planted in the ground and she looked indestructible. They could tear through her in a second but Yang didn’t care. She looked like she could fight off every Grimm that came for us, and I believed it. Because my big sis would always be there to protect me.”_

 

 

Ruby and Weiss stepped onto the metro platform. Weiss discretely dusted off her skirt while Ruby stretched her arms and shoulders, finally free from the cramped metal train. She finished by tapping her heavy combat boots against the tile and double-checked that her red hood was on straight and covering her head.

After a short electronic ring, Weiss pulled her Scroll out of her jacket pocket and checked a new message. “Yang says that they just left the bookstore and are going to meet us near the plaza,” she said to her teammate.

The two Hunters-in-training walked out of the station and into Vale’s commercial district. It was about an hour before sunset, the buildings had an orange glow to them and the shattered moon in orbit around Remnant was just rising over the western mountains.

Ruby yawned. “When was the last time the four of us went into town together?”

“Who knows?” Weiss put away her Scroll. It was probably when they all went out to invest in the new outfits they were wearing, Weiss thought. Ruby had on a gray long-sleeved shirt and a black pinafore, and Weiss sported a double-breasted white jacket. It was pretty light for the season, but Vale had pretty mild winters already and this year was a bit warmer than what Weiss was used to.

“It’s good to finally be able to relax,” Weiss said. She grimaced as she remembered how often Ruby and Blake skipped study sessions to lazily hang out together in their hidden corner of the library. “Well, some of us have been too busy to have any fun lately,” she muttered under her breath.

Ruby nodded, not hearing the spiteful follow-up, and crossed her arms behind her head. “Well, after all those tests we deserve a break.”

“After all of our misadventures these past few months, we deserve a much longer one.” Weiss drooped slightly. It had been a crazy semester for Team RWBY. From stowing away in airships, a "mild" home invasion, fights with anti-Hunter killers, casually becoming vigilantes, etc., it was a miracle they hadn’t all been expelled.

Looking over at Weiss, Ruby said, “Any news on whatever happened to Roman?”

“He must have decided to lie low after you and Blake messed with his last Dust heist.”

Ruby scrunched her face. Maybe, she thought. Roman didn’t seem like the kind of crook that would get scared off that easily.

They rounded a corner and started walking along the shops surrounding the plaza. The plaza was dedicated to Vale’s role in ending the Great War, and this section of the commercial district was built around it. It was a small city block which was split into four small parks in each corner. At the center was a statue of the first king of Vale: a monument in honor of his achievements during the war.

Ruby looked at the statue in passing. For some reason, the entrances and the center of the monument were roped off by police tape and barricades. Two city workers with caps obscuring their faces were setting them up and directing citizens to move away from the area. Ruby couldn’t see any reason for sealing off the parks though.

“Hey!”

Ruby turned her attention away to the voice. Yang was down the sidewalk waving to Ruby and Weiss. Blake was standing next to her, holding a bag of books. Yang had switched out her tan jacket and yellow top with a cream vest under a black collared shrug, and Blake wore a white v-neck crop top and, as always, a black bow on top of her head.

“Hey!’ Ruby called back. She took off in a sprint towards them. The sudden burst of speed messed up Weiss’s hair a little.

Weiss sighed. _At least she didn’t activate her Semblance_ , Weiss thought. _This time..._

Ruby ran and leapt onto Blake, wrapping her arms around her neck and spinning the two of them around. Blake, with the result of many practices, stoically kept her balance, but couldn’t help but blush a little at her girlfriend’s enthusiastic greeting.

Yang grinned at Blake’s minor embarrassment and then looked down at Ruby. “I can’t believe you’re stealing my teammate from me, sis!’ she said.

Blake sighed. A smile crept out for a second and she looked down at her girlfriend hanging off her. “How were tests?” she asked.

“All right,” Ruby said.

Weiss finally walked up to the rest of the group. She groaned at the sight of the couple. “You two are an embarrassment,” she said.

“It’s all her,” Blake said as she dropped Ruby to the ground.

Yang jumped up onto a nearby bench and looked down on the rest of her team. “Now, now, ladies!” she said in a grandiose voice. “Our first semester at Beacon has come to an end, and though we have faced many trials, we have clawed our way to the end victorious!”

Ruby and Blake let out an “ooh!” in awe. Weiss was rightfully embarrassed by the whole thing.

“In celebration of our achievements, this city is ours for the taking!” Yang raised her fist into the air. Ruby cheered and Blake calmly raised her arm in support. Weiss facepalmed.

“I swear,” Weiss said, “I’m going to get arrested because of you guys.”

Team RWBY set out and started checking out the shops around the plaza. An advertisement for new imported weapons from Vacuo caught Ruby’s attention immediately, and Blake and Weiss had to drag her away before she was too far gone. Yang was in especially good spirits while leading the pack. After a bit of a rough spot academically, she managed to ace all her finals, a fact that filled her teammates with pride, and burning resentment. And Weiss took this opportunity to once again try out this “window shopping” her friends had told her about, mostly from necessity, given her new financial situation.

Between shops, a loud vibrating hum seemed to shake the ground. Ruby looked up as a huge Atlas military airship slowly flew over the city. The noise from its engines interrupting the day-to-day of everyone in the commercial district. It was a large, arrow-shaped, black and white ship with six extended, fin-like wings out of its lower back. It was a carrier-class, able to hold sixteen Atlas fighter ships. It slowly circled towards the north, looping out of the city.

“Wow,” Yang said. “Atlas sure is getting a little intense lately.”

“General Ironwood hasn’t kept it a secret that he intends to station an entire fleet in Vale,” Weiss said.

Yang scoffed. “Like Ozpin would ever let him do that.”

Weiss and Yang continued their conversation a couple steps ahead of their partners.

Blake looked down at Ruby, or Ruby’s hood it turned out. She reached her hand behind Ruby’s head and pulled the hood back.

“Hey!” Ruby complained.

“I like seeing your face,” Blake said. She smirked and playfully bumped her bag of books against Ruby.

Ruby humphed.

She looked back at the plaza. The two workers had finished putting up the construction barriers and equipment, and were packing up for the night. They quickly walked away from their work and made a beeline for a side street heading towards the residential district.

As she was looking at them leaving, she caught a glimpse of Blake, also staring at the workers. She was intently looking at the smaller worker, a young woman with brown hair tucked into her cap. Unlike Ruby’s mild curiosity, Blake was focused, like she was trying to find something familiar in the woman before she disappeared between the buildings.

“You okay?” Ruby asked her girlfriend.

“What?” Blake snapped out of her trance. “Yeah,” she said. “It’s nothing.”

Ruby looked at Blake, concerned. It was never good when Blake got quiet like that, but all Ruby could do was start a new conversation to change the subject.

“You hear that SDC is under another investigation?” she said quietly so Weiss wouldn’t hear. “Assholes deserve it.”

“Yeah,” Blake said. “But the Atlas military is doing it so I’m sure they conveniently won’t find anything.”

“Oh, I’m sure it will work out.”

Blake shrugged, unconvinced.

“Don’t be a downer,” Ruby said. “We’re celebrating.”

Blake laughed. “I don’t know how you and Yang keep dragging me away from the opportunity of getting a quiet dorm room all to myself.”

“Well, someone has to,” Ruby said. “Get outside. Relax. Besides, you love us.”

“I came with you guys because I like hanging out with my friends,” Blake said. “But if I wanted to relax I’d rather crawl into bed and read a book.”

Ruby grinned. “Yeah,” she said, “I know what type of books you ‘relax’ to.”

Blake groaned. “Damn it,” she said. Ruby finding _that_ collection was the official low point of her semester.

“You know,” Ruby leaned closer to Blake and lowered her voice, “if you want to ditch Weiss and Yang, I can think of a few ways to make you relax.”

“You little--”

The center of the plaza exploded.

The statue burst apart in a fiery blast. Ruby hit the ground, either the shockwave knocking her off her unprepared feet or dropping from instinct. Some shop windows cracked and chunks of brick and metal scattered around the plaza and into the streets surrounding it. The explosion was over in a second but the dust cloud was already filling the block and spreading above the commercial district.

Ruby tried pushing herself up but fell on her side. She managed to roll over onto her back and gasp for breath. Her lungs filled with burnt dust. Ruby coughed, trying not to choke as a feeling like strong static electricity burst around her body. Red energy crackled as it spread around her as a reflex to the stress. But her ears already were ringing from the blast and her eyes stung from all the smoke.

Her sight was blurry, but she saw a dark shape over her. It seemed to be yelling something at her, but the ringing was too loud to really make out...

“Ruby!" Blake screamed.

Ruby’s hearing and sight snapped back. She pulled herself off the ground. No damage had been done to her other than some gravel on her cloak. She leaned against Blake who was kneeling next to her.

“Are you okay?” Blake asked, her breathing still shaking.

Ruby nodded. Her heart was racing from adrenaline. “Yeah,” she coughed out.

Still shaky from the blast, Ruby and Blake climbed to their feet and looked around them. Weiss and Yang had also gained their footing as several car and fire alarms suddenly started going off, filling the silence. From the looks of things, she and her team were the closest to the explosion. A few citizens around the plaza were also shakily recovering. Ruby quickly scanned for bodies and sighed in relief when she didn’t see any.

“That was a Dust explosion!” Ruby said, gasping between heartbeats that were trying to pound their way out of her chest. “A ton of Dust!” She could see shards of it strewn around the parks. Yellow and red crystal pieces lay embedded into the ground. A random burst of flame that conjured from a red crystal spread for a second, and a spark of lightning shot between two yellow Dust crystals.

She looked over the plaza, or what was left of it. The area around the explosion was scorched, with the monument completely destroyed, and in its place, at the center of the crater, a hole a few meters across. It was too deep to have been caused by that explosion. It looked more like a tunnel had been revealed by the destruction, or a series of explosions had been used to burst up into the city from below.

Along the edges of the hole was shredded metal and shattered concrete. Some rubble shifted. Bricks and concrete started to unnaturally be pulled down into the hole. Like something was dragging them down.

A black furred arm reached out.

It clawed around until it was able to grip tightly onto some stable ground, and pulled the rest of its weight into view.

A large, lumbering creature emerged. A Grimm. One of the monsters that Ruby had been training for years to kill as efficiently as possible. It had long black fur, so dark that it blended into the shadows behind it. Its large swaying body shifted across the ground, dragging claws that lazily dug into the earth. It opened its jaws and breathed, revealing jagged canines, crafted for ripping apart flesh. Bone spikes pierced out of its fur, awkwardly swinging back and forth as the creature moved step by step into the city. Its head was the skull of a wolf, with blood-red veins across the bleached bone, which held back two piercing yellow eyes.

From inside the tunnel, more dark shapes appeared. Several more Grimm of various shapes started to claw their way up to the surface. For the first time in the kingdom’s history, Vale had been breached.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been working on this story in my spare time for a while now and I'm glad to finally start releasing it. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy.


	2. Silver Eyes

_"I guess I’m a little all over the place, aren’t I? Um, let me start at the beginning. I guess all this started when I… funny enough when I got arrested…”_

  


Ruby didn’t consider herself much of a troublemaker. Sure, she was handcuffed to a chair in a police station break room, but, she told herself, at least it wasn’t an interrogation chamber. The cops were too busy that night to put her in one of those, so they stuck her within arms reach of a vending machine rather than deal with her at that moment. But Ruby liked to look on the bright side of things. _Stay positive, Ruby_ , she thought, trying to maintain a nervous smile despite no one around to _not_ be convinced by it. She’d never gotten in this much trouble before, but here she was, “locked up,” and that bright outlook on life was running out fast.

Luckily, Ruby’s spiral into despair was interrupted by a man entering the room. He briefly let in the bustling noise of the Vale police station before he closed the door behind him. He was a tall, middle-aged, man with messy grey hair, glasses, and wore a black jacket over a green turtleneck. He walked slowly to where Ruby was detained with the assistance of a cane, which clacked loudly across the tile floor with every uneven step.

“Miss Rose, I presume?” he said.

Ruby immediately recognized him. How couldn’t she? Professor, ex-Hunter, Headmaster of Beacon Academy, etc. Ozpin was famous across Remnant and a common inspiration to many young Hunters-in-training. Ruby’s spiral into despair quickly shifted into a spiral into confusion.

He limped over to the table in front of Ruby and pulled out a chair. Carefully, he lowered himself into the seat, sighed, and set his cane down on the table before leaning forward to study Ruby’s face. He was focused... like he was looking for something wrong.

Ruby leaned back, not enjoying the sudden examination.

“You have silver eyes,” he said.

Ruby looked at Ozpin and then around the room for an escape. “Yeah?”

Ozpin leaned back. Reaching into his jacket, he brought out a Scroll and set it on the table. He pulled up surveillance footage that showed the front of the shop Ruby was in an hour ago.

Ruby wanted to cover her face with her hood but watched the footage anyway. The shop window on the Scroll screen exploded in spectacular fashion as a red blur busted through it. The footage backed up and slowed down, showing Ruby charging through the window at a supernatural speed before throwing the thief she was tackling to the sidewalk outside. Four more thieves and their leader ran out of the shop to confront Ruby. She pulled out her battle scythe, Crescent Rose, and prepared to fight. Their leader, a red-haired guy with a bowler hat, walked up first. After sarcastically praising Ruby’s abilities, he opened fire with a concealed weapon in his cane.

Ruby thought back to how this mess started. She had been minding her own business while looking at the types of Dust sold in Vale. Compared to the stuff sold in Patch, it was a treasure trove. Anyways, the thieves showed up and she activated her Aura and threw herself and one of them through a window. He started it by pointing a gun at her, so she kicked his ass.

The footage continued to show Ruby quickly (and very carefully, Ruby thought) dispatching the goons.

“Two unconscious, one hospitalized, and two escaped,” Ozpin said. They all would’ve been caught if that weird ice-cream girl hadn’t swooped in out of nowhere. She floated down on her umbrella and used an illusion Semblance to run off with the bowler hat guy. Despite Ruby’s intervention, those two managed to escape with a briefcase full of Dust.

Then the cops showed up.

Apparently, having, let alone using, a Hunter-class weapon in a civilian area is frowned upon in Vale. Unless you have a permit, that is. Which Ruby didn’t.

“I hope you appreciate how much trouble you’re in, Miss Rose,” Ozpin said. “I understand that you were raised on Patch, but you’re not in a settlement anymore, and Vale is not loose with its regulations, something that city officials have had to remind my students and I numerous times.” He laughed.

Ruby nodded and laughed nervously. She got the message about those regulations when she realized what a teenager with her Aura activated, surrounded by bodies and a busted storefront looked like to the police.

“The police contacted me, thinking that one of our students had gone rogue. Haven’t been in the city a day and you’re already making me look bad?” He softly chuckled at Ruby’s horrified expression. “A joke, Miss Rose.”

“Oh. Hahahaha.” Ruby tried to laugh along.

Ozpin folded his arms. “Where did you learn to handle a scythe-type weapon? I wasn’t aware that Signal was that advanced of a Primary Combat School?”

Ruby perked up. “My uncle Qrow taught me,” she said. “I loosely based it off of his own design but made some modifications. You see, he’s not comfortable at long range, but a high caliber sniper rifle works for me because of how much I move around in combat so I can keep attacking even at a distance. Also, my fighting style doesn’t work well with a sword-type like his. Crescent Rose is designed around constant movement and maneuverability. I also made mine out of a light…” Ruby paused. She was rambling about weapons again. Yang had warned her about this.

Ozpin smiled. “I see that rumors of a talented and enthusiastic young student at Signal were not exaggerated. To have your level of skill at fifteen is certainly an accomplishment to be proud of.”

“I-I don’t know about that,” Ruby stammered. “I probably wouldn’t even last a round in a tournament. I have a lot more to learn before I would call anything I’ve done an accomplishment.”

Ozpin nodded, unconvinced. “What is a talented young woman like yourself doing in the heart of Vale at this time of night?”

“Well, my sister Yang is starting at Beacon next week--” Ruby once again appreciated that she was somehow talking to the headmaster of Beacon freaking Academy, “--so we decided to see what the city was like these days. I haven’t been here since I was a little kid and even Dad hasn’t been off Patch in forever.”

Ozpin stroked his chin. “Do you want to go to Beacon, Miss Rose?”

“Well, yeah!” Ruby said. “Any student would want to go to Beacon. If they want to be a Hunter that is. Not to knock the other academies, I just hear a lot of good things about Beacon. But I don’t need to tell you that.” Ruby laughed nervously, again.

After adjusting his glasses, Ozpin put his hands together and smiled. “I contacted your father before I arrived here, and after my recommendation, he mentioned that he wouldn’t object to your advancing two years.”

Ruby blinked. “Say what?”

“Your file says that your motivation in enrolling at Signal was to train yourself so that you could successfully apply for a Hunter Academy,” he said. “Considering your school record, your--” he pointed to the Scroll “--evident proficiency at an advanced weapon type, and your knowledge and training, moving up two years is not unreasonable. I also hear that you already have plenty of experience fighting Grimm on Patch. So, what do you say? Would you like to come to my school?”

Ruby stared back. The spiral of confusion hadn’t gone away but at least it was now an exhilarating hype spiral… thing. If she advanced she could get her Hunter license before she was nineteen, and she could graduate with Yang!

“Yes! Oh my god, yes!” Ruby tried to jump up in excitement, but was caught by the handcuffs and quickly yanked back into her chair. “I mean, ahem, what about tests? What about graduating from Signal?”

“Unless you have your reasons to stay at Signal, you don’t _need_ to graduate from a primary combat school to be accepted at Beacon. I can easily arrange your advancement.”

_This is fast_ , Ruby thought. It wasn’t supposed to happen this quick. Ruby was scared to death, but she couldn't pass up this opportunity. Also, considering a certain recent breakup, it might be best for her to avoid Signal right now.

“Um, thank you so much,” she said.

“Well then, I look forward to it, Miss Rose.” Ozpin smiled and slowly stood up. “Oh, and don’t worry about this whole mess,” he gestured to her handcuffs. “A few words from me and you’ll be left off with only a warning.”

 

**One month later...**

 

Ruby flew into the clearing with Crescent Rose drawn. She passed one of the Beowolf’s with enough force that her scythe decapitated it. She hit the grass and skidded across the ground, turning as she stopped towards the small group of Grimm she just sped through. A flurry of rose petals blew past her as they finally caught up with the speedster.

Ruby charged again, slicing another Beowolf’s throat. She made a sharp turn left, and swung down her enormous weapon through the chest of a third Beowolf. She slashed it down the middle again, and again, accelerating with each attack until she moved like a buzzsaw as she shredded the monster through before smashing her weapon into the ground and the Grimm’s fallen remains. Using her high caliber cannon, Ruby blasted the fourth Beowolf’s head into oblivion. It slowly slumped to the ground and began to evaporate with the other Grimm corpses surrounding Ruby.

“Phew.” Ruby relaxed her tall weapon against her shoulder, taking a moment to breathe.

She wiped some sweat from her forehead, but unbeknownst to her, turned her back on the second Grimm she attacked which climbed back up on its feet behind her. Her attack hadn't finished it off. It raised its right claw to slash at Ruby while her back was turned.

A snowflake-shaped glyph caught its arm mid-air, then another caught its left arm. The glyphs moved through the air, pulling outward until both of the Grimm’s arms were spread out. Two more white glowing glyphs appeared in front of and behind the Grimm. Spikes of solid ice conjured out, impaling the monster and finishing the kill. The Grimm’s body fell as it disintegrated, its arms still being held by the glyphs until the large white snowflakes vanished, dropping the limbs which evaporated before they hit the ground.

Ruby looked over at the other end of the clearing. “Oh, hey Weiss!” she called over. “Finish already?!”

Behind Weiss, several ice spikes were impaling the disintegrating bodies of a group of Grimm. The result of a carefully executed strike that took out multiple Grimm at once. A trademark of the Schnee’s combat style.

Weiss sighed. She walked over to Ruby with an exasperated look on her face. “You got careless, dolt,” she said.

“I had it under control. You just got him first,” Ruby said. “And besides, that’s why I’ve got you to back me up.”

Weiss rolled her eyes. Their team was in the Emerald Forest east of Beacon, which had a decent-sized population of Grimm, making it a perfect hunting ground for students practicing hunts close to campus. “If I was in command we wouldn't have separated from Yang and Blake in the first place.”

Ruby frowned. “Sheesh.”

“Anyway,” Weiss said, “we need to meet back up with them before they get overwhelmed--”

Yang burst into the clearing. She was tackling an Ursa and repeatedly punching it with her gauntlet, her fiery Aura blasting them across the ground as Yang kept hitting it.

Ruby turned. “Oh, it’s Yang,” she said.

Weiss watched in disbelief. Yang punched it one last time as it stopped moving and its body turned into black smoke.

“Wow, she dragged that one twenty yards with just her Aura,” Blake said while appearing between Ruby and Weiss.

Weiss jumped in surprise.

Ruby turned. “Oh, hey Blake.”

Blake waved back with a deadpan expression.

Weiss composed herself. “We need to wrap this up. It’s our first hunt as a team, and the sooner we get back to the extraction point the--”

A Death Stalker burst through the trees on the other side of the clearing. It screamed at the four girls, swinging it’s stinger and pincers at them as it charged.

Weiss was aghast. “Why can’t anyone just walk here?!”

Ruby readied her weapon. “Blake!” she said. “You and me on distraction. Weiss, I need you on containment. Yang! Get ready for the cold welcome. Got it?!”

“Got it!” Ruby’s three teammates responded.

Weiss spun her sword into a fencing pose as the Dust cartridge in her weapon spun onto a new clip. A large glyph appeared below her and started charging with energy from her Aura. Ruby and Blake started running side-by-side towards the Grimm. Yang jumped back a few yards and landed in a crouched position, waiting for the right moment.

Blake and Ruby rushed the Grimm. It attacked with its stinger at the two of them. Ruby activated her Semblance and sped behind the monster faster than it could strike, but Blake was impaled, only for her image to fade into a shadow. The Grimm screamed and looked to its side, where the real Blake was already slashing at the weak points on its exoskeletal legs.

Ruby’s speed was enough to make sure that the monster couldn’t keep track of her location as she sped through the air, changing her weapon into its rifle mode to chip away at the Grimm’s armor. After a few shots, she charged in, transforming Crescent Rose into a scythe, and slashed at its back before zipping away to repeat the attack. Despite her and Blake’s efficient strikes, they were making slow progress alone.

The Death Stalker tried to attack Blake with one of its pincers, but one of Weiss’s glyphs appeared and trapped it before it could get close. It screamed in frustration. It tried to step back, but most of its leg were already trapped by glyphs, immobilizing it. It looked around for its attackers. Blake wasn’t visible anymore, but it could still see the flashes of rose petals from Ruby speeding around in front of it.

The Grimm tried to sting Ruby, but she was too fast. Ruby turned back after the dodge and hooked her scythe between the exoskeleton plates above the stinger. She fired a few shots, cutting halfway through the tail’s flesh before she sped away. Blake used the opening to throw her own weapon, attached to a long black ribbon, and grappled the Grimm’s wound. Blake pulled herself up through the air to where her weapon was locked into the Grimm. She grabbed her weapon, sliced through the rest of the tail and rolled onto the ground. The Grimm screamed in pain. Its tail flailed wildly, and its stinger evaporated as it was separated from its body.

“Now!” Blake called to her team.

Weiss stabbed her rapier into the glyph beneath her. Several glyphs appeared behind Yang and started spinning while charging with energy. Yang charged her own Semblance, the Aura around her body growing more powerful and hot, the heat making her Aura look like she was on fire.

Still facing the injured Grimm, Ruby launched herself backward towards Weiss with her Semblance. She changed Crescent Rose into its gun form midair. Weiss gritted her teeth and let all that power she was charging lose on Yang. Yang jumped and was blasted towards the Grimm so powerfully she flew through the air.

Ruby heard the launch. She cocked her gun. Both students passed each other at super speed. Ruby shot Yang’s back with an explosive Dust round. Yang’s Aura was severely damaged, showing cracks in its energy. That’s when Yang’s Semblance activated: The weaker her Aura, the stronger its effects. Her fiery Semblance strengthened every cell in Yang’s body. Flying like a bullet, Yang punched the Grimm’s face. The attack powered from her own strength, her gauntlet weapons, the speed from Weiss’s glyph launch, and her unique Semblance, shattered the Grimm’s body.

Ruby tumbled past Weiss. “Ow,” she said, “still can’t stick the landing.”

Weiss sighed and reached her arm down and helped Ruby up. Ruby dusted herself off and picked grass out of her hair and hood.

“Nice going sis!’ Ruby called out across the clearing to her sister standing triumphantly in front of the cloud of smoke that used to be a Grimm.

“I did it!” Yang pumped her fist into the air.

“That was,” Weiss said, “certainly more effective than I thought.”

“Yeah she’s awesome,” Ruby said.

When Ruby and Weiss met back up with Blake and Yang, Yang’s Aura was in pretty bad shape. “Sit down and turn off your Aura,” Blake said.

“I’m good,” Yang said, stretching her arms. “I’m pumped!” she punched her fists together, and her Aura cracked up her arm. “Yeah, okay.” she relaxed and the faint yellow glow around her body and eyes faded.

As she turned off her Aura, Yang looked up past her teammates. “Uh, guys?” she said.  “You may want to deal with that.”

Ruby and company looked. A few more Grimm were headed into the clearing and had spotted them. “That must be the last of them,” Weiss said.

“I’m on it,” Blake said. She charged the group of Grimm. Her weapon shifted into its sheathed cleaver mode, and she did a two-handed strike on a Grimm. She unsheathed, slashed another Grimm with her sword and knocked aside a third with her heavy sheath behind her. She turned around and shot a Grimm in the skull, then pulled out her ribbon for her weapon’s sickle form. Blake threw it into the last Grimm and pulled it towards her. Before the flying body reached her, she retracted back the sickle to her hand, switched it back to its large cleaver mode, and uppercut the Grimm beneath the maw, killing it.

Ruby was enamored. “So cool…”

“Um, is she okay?” Weiss asked, looking curiously at Ruby.

Yang shrugged. “She just likes that Blake uses a scythe sometimes.”

Ruby barely heard, so she didn’t correct her again on the distinction between a scythe and a sickle (Yang always just responded that a tiny scythe is still a scythe so it wouldn’t have helped anyway).

Blake turned back towards the group. Ruby watched as she put her weapon back into her holster on her back. Her muscles still tense from the action and every one of her steps filled with confidence and power. Her bow twitched slightly. Blake wiped some sweat from her forehead, tossing her dark flowing hair back. Her hair caught the breeze and drifted down behind her shoulder.

Blake stopped and rested her hand on her waist when she rejoined the team. “Are we done here?”

Ruby swooned.

  


After some hiking, Team RWBY reached the extraction point. Professor Goodwitch was waiting for them with an airship ready to fly them back to Vale.

“I don’t know if our teamwork will make up for splitting up for so long,” Weiss said.

“Would it help our team unity points if I ordered the team to decide on a uniform, Weiss?” Ruby joked.

“Not helping,” Weiss said.

“Oh come on Weiss,” Yang said. “No _Schneed_ to be so down.”

The rest of the team groaned.

“Do we need to be punished as well, Yang?” Blake said.

After they boarded the airship, the engines started up, and Glynda turned to the group. “All known Grimm in the area eliminated. Aura levels are a little low for this exercise, but weapons are still in combat condition.” The professor checked off the requirements from her Scroll. “Still have extra stock of Dust ammunition. Points deducted for your team splitting up for longer than the allowed time limit. Overall: Performance was acceptable. Good work, ladies.”

Weiss sighed in relief as the ship rose above the forest. Ruby didn’t want to admit it out loud, but a lot of stress evaporated once she heard they passed.

Ruby sat next to the window looking out over the passing landscape. Yang sat next to her and let out a loud groan. “Well that was more intense than anything on Patch, wasn’t it?” Yang said.

“Yeah,” Ruby said. A lot more.

Yang laughed. “Remember when you used to sneak out to hunt Grimm?”

“That was forever ago!”

“More like last year,” Yang said. She sighed and looked back out at the forest. “We sure aren’t at Signal anymore.”

Ruby nodded but didn’t say anything for a moment. “It’s intense,” she finally said.

“Well… yeah, it’s the next level.”

“But,” Ruby started. Yang had two more years than Ruby did to get here, she thought.

“You’ll be fine,” Yang said. “You’re too obsessed with yourself.”

Ruby laughed. “Don’t lump me in with you, you egomaniac.”

“I am awesome aren’t I?” Yang flipped her hair. Ruby rolled her eyes and smiled. “We’re both in a new city, new school, next step in finally becoming Hunters, but we’re both here together. Just like we’ve always been, so… yeah.”

Ruby nodded. “Thanks, Yang.”

“Besides,” Yang said, “if you ever get overwhelmed, you can always force Weiss or Blake to do your homework for you, leader.”

“Shut up!” Ruby smiled.


	3. School Day

_“I kinda freaked out when I found out I was going to be in charge of my team. We were all at the opening ceremony, and Ozpin was like ‘Boom! You’re the team leader now. Have fun!’ Heh, I mean, Ozpin even named the team ‘RWBY.’ not that I can think of another way to rearrange those letters, but like… I couldn’t even pretend that I wasn’t in charge after that._

_“Me being the leader led to some problems early on with Weiss. I don’t think the team’s name helped. Yang used to joke that Weiss was mad because the ‘W’ was silent. But anywho, Weiss thought for a while that she would’ve done a better job than me. Maybe she would’ve._

_“Considering what’s happened since that semester, I almost feel silly in hindsight for being as nervous as I was. Still, it’s kinda nice looking back on it…”_

  


Ruby yawed. After a morning full of boring lectures, Team RWBY finally sat down for lunch. Professor Port was becoming a legitimate threat to her academic career. Being Ruby’s first class of the morning, her droning professor’s “stylistic” use of anecdotes led to serious damage that stuck with her through the rest of the day. On top of everything, she was still tired from the previous day’s hunt and just wanted to go back to sleep.

The cafeteria was at the front of the student center and had tall ceilings and large windows looking out at Beacon’s campus around them. The rows of tables were mostly filled by other freshmen, all similarly tired after a long educational half-day.

“All I’m saying is that Oobleck talks _way_ too fast to keep up with,” Yang said.

Ruby looked up across the table at her sister. “What do you mean?”

“Ugh.” Yang rolled her eyes. Of course the highly caffeinated professor was exactly on Ruby’s wavelength. Ruby herself didn’t have any issues with the man, except for the massive paper he just assigned his students.

“What sort of topic is ‘prominent Dust mines during the Great War and their influence on Vale’s eventual victory?’” Ruby asked.

“A perfectly reasonable one,” Blake said.

“Bleh.”

The TV program playing on one of the nearby televisions hanging on the cafeteria wall was interrupted by an updated news report. The reporter on the screen looked bored as she said, “After last week’s White Fang attack on an Atlas government building, tension has risen between Atlas security forces and Faunus rioters.”

“Animals,” a student nearby said under their breath, but loud enough for everyone watching to hear.

Ruby nearly choked on her drink. She looked around the cafeteria to make sure that Velvet, a second-year student, and the only Faunus Ruby knew about on campus, wasn’t in the room. She wasn’t, and Ruby let out a sigh of relief.

The reporter continued, “As of now, four rioters are dead and over a hundred Faunus have been arrested. Atlas officials have commented that they are handling this as quickly and efficiently as possible and that the chaos will not last much longer. Multiple arrested Faunus are suspected to have ties to the White Fang.

Yang looked back at the TV. “This stuff just keeps happening more and more, doesn’t it?”

“Considering all the leaks about illegal labor camps with connections to several corporations that their government sponsors, can you really blame them?” Blake said.

“I guess,” Ruby shrugged. It would explain the motivation behind their more recent attacks, not that she liked their methods though. Hell, she didn't even remember the White Fang before they started bombing places, despite them having been around since the end of the Great War.

Weiss glared at Blake. “Excuse me? What are you suggesting, Miss Belladonna?!”

Blake shrugged. “So what? It’s good to understand why people do what they do.”

“They’re a bunch of terrorists!”

“Who are known to attack your company,” Blake said. “And why's that again?”

Weiss hesitated and clenched her fists. Ruby got ready to jump between the two at any moment, and Yang started watching the escalation intently while chewing on her lunch.

The report continued as the anchor addressed a panel of human experts. “Tell me,” she said, “what are all of your takes on these recent developments in Atlas?”

“Pretending this is an Atlas only problem won’t get us anywhere. It really goes back to the complete lack of Faunus representation in all four Kingdom’s governments,” one said.

Another panelist cut in. “What the heck, I don’t see the problem here. The voting act has been in place for five years, these ‘people’ just want something to complain about at this point.”

“The Faunus voting act is a band-aid to a much larger problem. It doesn’t address workforce, housing, or service discrimination, and all those and more are still massive social issues, even here in Vale. Yes, Faunus citizens can vote now, but that doesn’t account for the systemic forces set in place that disenfranchise them from the political process. How easy is it to forget that if you’re a Faunus, you can’t be a politician? The system is based around--”

The TV shattered. Everyone in the cafeteria jumped at the crash, and Blake and Weiss’s confrontation completely dissolved.

Cardin Winchester, another freshman, had thrown his lunch tray across the room into the television, breaking it and knocking it to the ground.

“Traitor,” Cardin said. He smirked and leaned back. His team laughed, and the other freshmen around them shifted in their seats and looked around for any professors. He and his team had caused some trouble over the past month, but they were pretty good at killing Grimm, so the faculty hadn’t done much.

Cardin looked over at Ruby. “What are you looking at, settler?”

Apparently, Ruby was glaring at him. She hadn’t realized, but now that he called her _that,_ she gritted her teeth.

Cardin stood up.

Then Ruby stood up.

He started walking over to RWBY’s table.

Yang’s watching and eating intensified.

“Surprised you lasted this long kid,” Cardin said. “Thought by now you’d run home to your Faunus friends.”

“Patch is a _human_ settlement,” Ruby said.

“Oh my mistake,” he laughed. Ruby clinched her fist. “Don’t think you’re special because Patch has a primary combat school. The Kingdoms got plenty of those. Good job.” He slowly applauded and glared down at Ruby, who was thinking about aiming her fist at his throat.

“That’s enough!” Professor Goodwitch entered the cafeteria. With a flick of her wrist, she fixed the TV with her Semblance. “There is a time and place for fighting between students,” she said. “Next period.”

The school bell rang, and all the students hurried out of the room towards their next classes. Cardin glared at Ruby but turned to go with the rest of his team. Glynda looked at both her students one last time and started to head to her next class as well.

Ruby’s team finished their lunches while Yang looked a little too let down that no fights started.

Once Ruby left the cafeteria, the adrenaline faded, leaving a vacuum quickly filling with anxiety.

  


It wasn’t a long walk to the amphitheater. The layout of Beacon Academy was based around a large central walkway. From the landing pads at the west end, it went up to a statue dedicated to the first Hunters, and then the amphitheater, which was behind the CCTS tower at the very front of the campus. On the north side of the road, from back to front, was the dorms, the student center, the north gardens, and the library. The south side had the training hall, the lecture building, the southern gardens, and then by the CCTS was the dance hall, warehouse and miscellaneous buildings (including a gift shop) with a small plaza and fountain at their center. Ruby thought it was a good spot if she needed some alone time on campus.

Most students get into Beacon after graduating a Primary Combat School. They’ll get recruited, or they will apply on their own. There are exceptions for applicants that show they are at the level of skill needed for the academies. However, it wasn’t too common, so access to an Academy recognized school was a huge advantage in a Hunter’s early career. The fact that Ruby’s dad and uncle helped start Signal was a big deal. Her whole family was proud of it. Students spend three years at the school to finish their training, and with their graduation, they become licensed Hunters.

Next period was Professor Goodwitch’s combat class. It was Monday, so her class was in the amphitheater.

In the locker room, Ruby changed out of her uniform and into combat clothes. She was still anxious after the confrontation in the cafeteria. _It’s a settlement,_ Ruby thought. _That’s all you could say? Damn it._

“Kingdom elitist trash,” she mumbled.

“Sorry if I offended,” a voice next to her said.

“Agh!” Ruby jumped. Pyrrha was standing to her right. “Oh! Not you! Just talking to myself. Heh heh.”

“I know,” she laughed. “You just seemed really lost in thought there.”

“Oh, sorry,” Ruby said. She relaxed and smiled. “How was your guys’ first hunt?”

“Pretty good,” Pyrrha said. “The team thing is different than Mistral’s schools, but it’s good. They’re a good team.”

Ruby nodded. As special as Pyrrha was, her and Jaune’s teammates were really great recruits for Beacon. Nora was a good heavy fighter in the group, and Ren’s Semblance was without competition in a Grimm hunt. They’d come to Beacon precisely to be on a team together, and planned on staying partners once they graduate and go into the field.

“You know,” Ruby said, “I never asked, but why did you decide to go to Beacon?”

Pyrrha hesitated. “Well. It’s embarrassing.”

Ruby raised an eyebrow. “How?”

“Actually, I was interested in Beacon because it’s where Summer Rose was educated.”

“Oh!” Ruby said.

“Part of my training as a child was watching her old tournament recordings,” Pyrrha said. “To think I’d also end up going to Beacon with her daughter. She was the perfect Hunter. I can definitely see where you get it from.”

“I don't remember her much, but thanks.”

The final bell for class rang. “Okay,” Pyrrha said. “See you in there.”

“See ya,” Ruby said.

Pyrrha walked out of the locker room, leaving Ruby alone.

Ruby stared at the inside of her locker, motionless. The room fell silent as the rest of the students made their way to class.

Ruby slammed the locker door closed.

A minute later, She sat down next to her team in the amphitheater. The students were sitting around the stage below them where Professor Goodwitch was standing and looking at a Scroll before she addressed her students.

“Our two first fighters for today’s class will be: Mr. Winchester and Ms. Rose,” she said.

_Whaaaa?_ Ruby thought.

Cardin confidently got up and started walking down to the arena. Ruby also stared down to the arena, but with much less enthusiasm than her opponent.

Every student in the amphitheater perked up at the fifteen-year-old’s name, finally able to see what made her so special. It didn’t help Ruby at all.

Both students reached the edge of the stage and picked up Aura-reading wristbands. They snapped onto their wrists and clicked on with an orange light for Cardin and a red light for Ruby.

Goodwitch directed Ruby and Cardin to opposite ends of the arena. Once the professor stepped off the platform, both students pulled out their weapons. Ruby’s Crescent Rose transformed out into both of her hands, and Cardin whipped his mace through the air, a trail of yellow electricity from the weapon’s Dust followed behind it.

Ruby gulped.

“Activate your Auras and begin after the signal,” Goodwitch instructed. Red energy flared around Ruby’s body and crackled while it stabilized. Similar orange energy appeared around Cardin’s body. The holo-screen above the arena lit up above them with two life bars at 100%, one red and one orange, with “Rose” and “Winchester” above their respective bar. “Tournament rules,” Glynda said. “You win if your opponent’s Aura falls below 10%.”

Cardin readied himself while Ruby was on the verge of a panic attack. Everyone was looking at her, and she was going up against a much taller and older student. Plus, it was the first time she had been called on in class for a legit all-out fight, and he looked tough.

“Ready…” Glynda prepared to start the round.

“Hey, Ruby!” Weiss called out. “You’re our leader, so don’t make us look bad!”

Ruby loosened up.

“Oh…”

“Fight,” Glynda said, and started the timer.

  


Cardin’s Aura-bar on the holo-screen blooped down to 8%.

Ruby came to a stop, and Cardin fell to the ground. His mace fell away from his body and rolled in a little circle.

All the student's jaws dropped.

The timer stopped just after ten seconds of combat. “Miss Rose wins,” Goodwitch announced.

Weiss smirked, and Yang grinned. “That’s my sis!”

Ruby thanked the instructor, removed her Aura reading band, and sat back down in her seat. Once she sat down, all the stage fright came rushing back. “Ahhhhhhhh…” she squeaked out through a clenched mouth.

By her next class, Ruby had recovered a little.

“Winning was a cinch,” Weiss said as they sat down in the lecture hall. “I can’t believe you got stage fright.”

“He looked a lot tougher than he actually was okay!” Ruby said.

“You just rush into groups of Beowolf's, but some overgrown nitwit gets you nervous?”

Ruby shrugged. “I don’t know…”

Yang laughed. “You should've seen her at Signal,” she said. “With our teachers, she never got nervous fighting, but the second other students watched she freaked the hell out.”

“That’s because Dad and Uncle Qrow were teachers,” Ruby said.

“Then why were you really talkative with professor whats-her-name.”

“She was cool!”

Yang raised a skeptical eyebrow.

“Weren’t you the top student at Signal?” Blake asked.

“Yep,” Yang answered for Ruby. “She set the record for entry-level exams.”

“Oh, shut up,” Ruby said. “Don’t make it sound like it’s a big deal.”

“That’s impressive,” Blake said.

“Really?!” Ruby beamed.

Weiss and Yang said, “Oh my god…”

The door to the lecture hall opened, and everyone went silent. She was one of those professors that even after a month, students couldn’t talk between each other while she was in the room, even quietly. Her glare was toxic, and students had been known to shrink below their desks rather than make eye-contact. She had short, messy brunette hair, but the most noticeable thing about her was a web of scars across her face.

Professor Amber slammed a file onto the desk and fell into her chair. “Come up to my desk as your name is called and get the reports of last week’s work,” Amber said with a sneer, not even bothering to look at her students.

She called a name, and that student went up to the front of the class.

She called up another name, and another student went up.

Eventually, she called Ruby’s name, and Ruby went up to the desk.

Amber handed her the report. “You need to work on your endurance training and defense,” she said.

Ruby nodded and took the file.

After a moment, while looking at her papers and filling out a separate sheet, Amber said, “Looks like you defeated Winchester in ten seconds.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Ruby said.

Amber glared up at Ruby. “Don’t be proud,” she said. “Winchester is a joke.”

Ruby stiffened. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Your Semblance is speed. Get faster.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

 Ruby stood in front of Amber’s desk awkwardly for a few seconds.

Professor Amber kept staring at her face.

Ruby looked away nervously.

“Leave,” Amber said coldly.

 “Yes, ma’am!”

  


Team RWBY was studying in the library after classes. For as large as Beacon was, the library was surprisingly uncrowded, leaving plenty of room for teams who needed to study, in this case, research for Oobleck’s paper.

“Why does she hate me so much?” Ruby said.

“Maybe because you two have the same hairstyle?” Yang said.

“Our hair is nothing alike?”

Yang shrugged.

Ruby slumped. She was in misery. So, Professor Amber was going to kill her, as long as Oobleck didn’t finish Ruby off first with this damn paper.

“This paper sucks!” Ruby dropped her face into her textbook.

Yang patted her on the back. “Cheer up,” she said. “You’ll get through it.”

Ruby rolled her head up and looked at Yang. “You know,” she said, “Nora offered to put our team’s brains together for a double team study session with the rest of JNPR.”

Yang went back to writing her paper. “We wouldn’t get any work done.”

“How dare you say that about Nora!”

“She was talking about you,” Blake said, never looking up from her textbook.

Ruby was _offended_.

Weiss closed her textbook. “I'm never going to get any studying done with you people,” she said. “I will be in the dorm.” She quickly packed up her book bag and walked away from her team.

“Bye,” Ruby said.

“Good luck,” Yang said.

Blake waved, but never looked up from her textbook.

Ruby went back to her godforsaken textbook. _Why are the letters so small?_ she thought. _Just focus, Rose! God damn it._ She tried to focus on something interesting. _The Great War marked the first time that Dust was used in mass for something other than fighting off Grimm. This rapidly advanced technology and discoveries in what Dust was capable of, particularly in weapons, which became adopted by Hunter Academies and Kingdom defenses after the war to focus back on killing Grimm._

Ruby dropped her textbook onto the table. “You know what I never got about the Great War?” she said.

“What?” Yang said.

“Why’d they do it? Like, Mantle was trying to get rid of all free expression and establish a worldwide police state. How’d did anyone willingly fight for them? It’s pretty obvious they were the bad guys. Like, destroying art, burning books,  spying on people, etc. etc. It’s red flags the country.”

Blake turned the page of her textbook. “They were fascists,” she said.

“Well, yeah,” Ruby said. Guess it was a stupid question.

“They didn’t plan on losing and ending up on the wrong side of history. Hindsight is powerful,” Blake said.

Ruby shrugged and resigned herself back to her textbook.

 

* * *

 

Weiss yawned as she walked down the hall to her team’s dorm room. Yesterday’s hunt in Emerald Forest was more exhausting than she wanted to admit, not that she would let anyone else notice.

She opened her room’s door and entered. A tall man was standing across from her next to the dresser by Weiss and Ruby’s bunk bed. He was reading one of Weiss’s school books. He looked like he was in his late fifties and wore a white suit and thin glasses.

He turned his head as Weiss came into the room. “Ah,” he said, “you have a good collection here, Miss Schnee.”

Weiss froze when she saw him. Her scar started to ache, but Weiss showed nothing on her face. “The hell are you doing here?” Weiss said.

“Now, now,” he said. “I was passing through Vale, and your father wanted me to check up on you.” He dropped the book on the dresser.

“The CCTS is literally on campus,” Weiss said. “If he wanted to know he could call.”

The man turned away from Weiss. “He wanted a more… personal report,” he said. “And as your father’s trusted secretary, what more trustworthy source?”

He put his hands behind his back and started pacing around the dorm room. “You have a nice residence here,” the secretary said. “It’s very…” his face contorted “...homey.”

Weiss folded her arms and kept eye contact. “What do you want?”

The secretary relaxed, straightened his jacket and pulled a small electronic drive out of his pocket and held it out to Weiss. “Activate this in Ozpin’s personal office within two meters of his personal computer for at least seventeen seconds.”

Weiss took the device. It was small and easy to conceal, a perfect tool for smuggling and espionage. “What--”

“Seventeen seconds is enough time for the program to run,” the secretary said. “Once you’re done, keep it until my next visit.”

“I--”

“You will.” The secretary took a deep breath and cracked his neck. “Do it, or your father may rethink your time here at Beacon, Miss Schnee. As the heir to the company, you have responsibilities, and you will fulfill them.”

He walked past Weiss and opened the door. He stopped. The secretary turned and looked back at the dresser. Weiss followed his line of sight to the framed photo of Team RWBY.

“They look… nice,” the secretary said. The edges of his mouth twisted upward. He slipped into the hallway and silently closed the door behind him.


	4. A Moment Alone

_ “Jaune and I met during orientation. I was trying to avoid the crowds of other new students, and both of us just happened to sit on the same bench. We both were really out of place, so we got along really well. _

_ “His weapon’s pretty cool. It's this sick sword and shield called Crocea Mors. Real old fashioned, but the shield has been modified to transform into a sheath. And, get this, while sheathed, the sword becomes a two-handed broadsword, and-- _

_ “... _

_ “Anywho, after we two dorks got in charge of a team with people a lot cooler than us, no offense Jaune, we kinda got closer…” _

 

 

Ruby and Jaune studied their cards. The quiet library around them faded from their senses as they focused on their battle, for what could be more important than this conflict?

Jaune peaked over his cards, and slammed one on the table to meet Ruby’s attack! “I play a Golden Beetle card to block your 5/5 card attack and destroy it.”

“Dang it,” Ruby said. “Your turn.”

“I play another blue energy and put down two Mammoth cards,” he said. “Your turn.”

“I’m still shielded against magic attacks, right?”

Jaune quickly looked through his discard pile to double check that he hadn't used a spell card that round. “Yup.”

Ruby played a card. “I play an Emerald Dragon, and because I’m shielded from spells, he gains +3 attack and defense, and flying status.”

“Oh boy,” Jaune said.

“I attack and win.”

“Hold on!” Jaune said. “I’m able to play Whisper Shield on opponents turns which gives me +4 health for a single turn. So, with your attack, I still have three health.”

“I spend the last of my energy for this turn and cast Lightning for three damage,” Ruby said.

“Damn it…”

“Haha!” Ruby cried triumphantly.

Jaune leaned back in his chair in defeat and dropped his cards onto the table. “I need to rebuild my deck.”

“Suck it.” Ruby put away her cards in her bag. “So how’s training anyway?”

“It’s fine,” he said.

“Fine?” Ruby raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah,” Jaune said. “It’s fine.”

“That’s BS,” Ruby said. “Tell me  _ everything _ .”

“Well,” Jaune said. “It’s just kinda embarrassing to be the team leader and at the same time getting trained by a teammate.” He rubbed his shoulder. “Yeah, that and other stuff.”

“Oooooooooh???”

Jaune blushed. “Look,” he said, leaning forward, “between you and me…”

Ruby nodded. “Uh-huh.”

“I kinda… have a crush on Pyrrha,” he said.

“Who doesn’t?” Ruby said. The first time that the two of them saw Pyrrha during orientation they geeked out for a solid minute. And when Jaune got teamed up with Pyrrha, he and Ruby geeked out about how freaking cool it was that he was on a team with Pyrrha freaking Nikos.

Jaune laughed. “It’s that obvious?” he said.

“Don’t worry about it,” Ruby said. From the last few weeks of watching those two interact, it was getting a little hilarious how poorly Jaune was hiding it. “Just ask her out!”

“What!” Jaune said. “NoooOOOoo.”

Ruby slammed her hand on the table. “I want to be friends with the person dating Pyrrha Nikos!”

Jaune started to say something, then stopped, thought for a second, then said, “Aren’t you kinda friends with Pyrrha  _ now _ …?”

Ruby stared at him. “... I’m still processing that, okay,” she said. “It’s been a long month.”

“Anyway,” Jaune said. “Nope. If this goes bad, it’s three years of awkwardness and not to mention she’s out of my league my dude… and I don't want to look weird.”

“You asked out Weiss on day one of school! Since when have you cared about looking weird while asking a girl out?” Ruby said.

Jaune sunk onto the table. “I’m awkward,” he said. “And I apologized to Weiss. I’m sorry!”

Ruby laughed. “I’m never letting you live that down,” she said. “Speaking of, you sure move fast. It’s only been a month since the Weiss incident.”

“Exactly,” he groaned.

Ruby patted his head. “Just follow your heart, Jaune,” she said. “Believe in yourself!”

Jaune was about to respond when he felt a presence. Ruby also sensed it. The dark force silenced them and filled them with dread.

They both looked to their side, and close to the table stood Professor Amber, glaring at them.

The professor gritted her teeth and walked further into the library.

Once she was out of sight, both students let out a sigh of relief. 

“Why does she hate us?” Ruby said.

“Well,” Jaune said, “she hates me because I have a support Semblance that can’t really be used in a fight.” His Semblance could heal and/or recover another Aura on contact, which gave his team an advantage, but Amber wanted results in solo fights, which he couldn’t give her. “But I don’t know why she hates you.”

“The world hates me,” Ruby slumped onto the table with Jaune.

“Maybe she doesn’t like how you always have your hood up?”

“The dress code is flexible,” Ruby said, then thought about it for a second. “It’s probably because we were talking loudly in the library…”

“Oh yeah…” Jaune said.

Ruby looked up. Pyrrha had walked into the library and was looking at the two of them lifelessly on the table. She walked over. “Um, hi guys,” she said. “What’s up?”

“We’re in despair,” Ruby said.

“Hey Pyrrha,” Jaune said lifelessly.

“Want to join us?” Ruby sprung up.

“I’ll pass,” Pyrrha laughed. “Hey, Jaune?”

Jaune sat up. “Yeah?”

“Professor Goodwitch wants to see our team in the lecture hall and go through our training schedule.”  She pronounced schedule like “shed-yool,” and Ruby thought it was really cool.

“Oh shit,” Jaune checked his Scroll and saw that his battery was dead. “Thanks for finding me.” He jammed his stuff into his backpack and got up.

“No problem,” Pyrrha said.

“See ya,” Jaune said to Ruby.

“Bye!” Ruby said to the both of them as they left in a hurry.  _ God, she’s perfect, _ Ruby thought.  _ Damn it Jaune _ .

Ruby leaned back and looked at the ceiling. A light hurt her eyes, so she moved her hood to shield her and looked at a darker part. She quietly mumbled the tone of a ringtone she had heard from some other students’ Scroll the other day.

_ I’m bored! _ she thought. She reached over and scooted the newspaper on the table towards her. There were articles on Vale fashion, way too early predictions on what Hunter academy students would make it to next year’s tournament, what important and shady secrets the mysterious hacker called Queen had found about Mistral’s relationship with the Kingdom’s crime syndicates, growing support in Faunus communities around Sienna Khan being the highest it’s been since she took over the White Fang, where the next chunk of the moon will fall through the atmosphere, etc. Same old.

_ I should probably start my homework _ , she thought. She mumbled a few more lines from the song. “Or,” she said.  _ I could have some fun… _

Ruby walked into the rows of shelves to find a book. She’d looked up a book on advanced battle-scythe forms on her Scroll and set out on a search. The library was a maze and bigger than she thought it was going in. Most of the school’s texts had been uploaded to the CCTS network, but some of them still needed to be found physically. Apparently, advanced battle-scythe forms weren’t in high demand at Beacon, or anywhere really.

In a dark corner of the library, Ruby found her book, almost disappointed that it wasn’t surrounded by cobwebs and dust but only with… book smell. She took it and started walking past rows of far more boring books on her way out of the maze, but stopped, backed up a few rows and did a double take.

Blake was sitting on a pile of bean bags reading a book. She was in a hidden nook at the end of one of the rows that she was using as a reading room.

Blake looked up and the two locked eyes.

“Hey,” Ruby said.

“Hey,” Blake said.

“They have beanbags?”

Blake looked down. “Looks like it,” she said and looked back up.

“They have beanbags!”

“...Don’t tell anyone.”

“Of course I won’t,” Ruby said. “This is a good secret!” 

Ruby grinned, but after a few seconds realized that they'd hit an awkward silence. She also couldn’t help but think about how out of all her teammates, they didn’t talk much and that this was the first time (somehow) that they’ve actually been alone together. And that she’d interrupted Blake's private space, sorta, it’s public space but… nevermind. 

“So… what ya doing?”

“Reading,” Blake said.

“Cool…” Ruby said. “So,” she tried to come up with a conversation, “What’s your favorite book?”

“Don't have one,” she said.

Ruby was bad at reading rooms and body language, but even she could tell that this was awkward. “Hey,” she said. “You mind if I hang out? I got some reading to do too…” 

Blake raised an eyebrow. 

“Yeah, I’ll just go--”

“No, you’re good,” Blake quickly said. She motioned to another bean bag next to her. “Go for it.”

“Cool.” Ruby smiled and plopped down in a bean bag next to Blake. Ruby opened her book and started reading.

“What are you reading?” Blake asked.

“Advanced Fighting for Battle-Scythe users.”

“Oh,” Blake said. “Studying?”

“Pshaw!” Ruby glared at Blake.

 

* * *

Weiss stared at the white device in her hand. She was sitting on a stone bench in the campus gardens. She just needed some privacy to think. She’d wondered what to do about this thing for the past two days. She wanted more than anything to throw it over the fence and not bother thinking about it again, but her father’s threat stuck in her mind.

A quiet metallic noise broke her out of her pondering. It sounded like the shutter on a camera. Weiss turned. Just around the corner of the path was a student snapping photos of the gardens. She was a rabbit Faunus. Weiss recognized her as a member of Coco’s team. Velvet, if she recalled her name.

Velvet noticed her between photos. “Oh,” she said. “I’m not bugging you am I?”

“No,” Weiss said. She glanced up at the large rabbit ears on the Faunus’s head. “I haven’t seen you around here,” she said.

Velvet walked over to the bench. “Yeah, I wander around when I want to take some photos. Clear my head and everything.” 

So she wasn’t the only one who came here when she needed to escape or sort things out, Weiss thought.

“Photography clears your head?” Weiss asked.

“Yep,” Velvet said. “It’s just a hobby but I’ve been doing it since I was a kid. What about you?”

“I don’t take photos,” Weiss said.

“I meant hobbies.”

“I don't really have any.”

“Well, what are you good at, other than Hunter stuff?”

“Piano, singing, dancing, but…” She didn’t enjoy any of them. Not in the way that Ruby couldn’t shut up about her scythe, or the look in Blake’s eyes when she got into a good book or the look on Velvet’s face right now. She decided to turn the conversation back around to photos. “What made you get into photography?” Weiss asked.

“I guess I like capturing moments. It’s like freezing what’s there and showing it off. Mostly I just think it’s fun.” She snapped a photo of a flower and laughed. “Also it’s a good excuse to go off on my own when I need to. I did it when I was a kid when my family got a bit too much, and I love my team, but you can use plenty of me-time when you’re living with three roommates.”

“Yes, It’s definitely different,” Weiss said.

“You have family?”

“I’m a Schnee.”

“Well I don’t have your family tree in my pocket right now,” Velvet grinned. “I must have left it at the dorm.”

Weiss couldn’t help but smirk. “My sister,” she said, “but we don’t talk.”

“Oh, sorry,” Velvet said. “Family can be weird,” she said. “Just because they’re family doesn’t mean that they’re… family, you know.” She sighed at whatever nonsense she said. “Whatever that means.”

“No, I get that,” Weiss said. She understood, even if only a little. It wasn’t something she could ever open up to Yang or Ruby about because they did everything together.

Weiss’s Scroll let out an electronic ring. She checked it. She’d gotten a message from the school, requesting that she visit the headmaster’s office immediately.

_ What? Does he know? _ Weiss thought.  _ No impossible. It’s just a coincidence. _

She exhaled to calm herself down but realized that now was the only chance she would get. She looked at the white device in her hand one last time.

“I have to go,” Weiss said. She stood up and closed her fist around the device. “Good luck with the flowers.”

“Thanks,” Velvet said. Weiss turned to leave, but Velvet spoke up again. “You should come by our room sometime. I’m don’t like to rub it in people’s faces, but Coco tells me I should show off my photos to more people. Get some feedback.”

Weiss thought for a moment. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll… I’ll see you later.”

Velvet waved as Weiss left the gardens.

  
  


Weiss rode up the quiet elevator alone. She swallowed, straightened her sleeves and stood up straight. The white device was hidden in her palm. 

The elevator doors opened into Ozpin’s office. It was a large round room at the top of Beacon Tower with large windows for walls and clock gears ticking at the ceiling, part of the massive Dust mechanism that powered the CCTS network.

Ozpin was sitting at his desk at the opposite end of the room. He turned towards Weiss and asked her to come in. 

Weiss walked to the desk and sat down on the seat that he motioned towards. 

“I wanted to ask about your studies,” he said.

Weiss nodded. “Ask away.”

“Based on your records that were transferred from Atlas,” he said, “you’ve been struggling more than what is typical for you. Also, yesterday’s test scores were drastically below your average performance. Are you stressed?”

“I am merely adapting to Beacon’s curriculum.”

Ozpin put his hands together. “Is Vale’s educational methods that much different from Atlas’s?”

“Headmaster,” Weiss said, “Atlas is strict with its rules, and does not put up with a lot of behavior that your school does. Also, students as leaders is not one of their practices.” 

Weiss looked at the computer on the desk in front of her. Her thumb was over the activation button on the device she smuggled into his office.

“How is your relationship with your team?” Ozpin asked. 

Weiss glanced down at her hand. Just press the button and you don’t have to worry about anything else, she told herself. It was a contradiction. Press the button and you’re free, as long as you do what he said.

“Miss Schnee?” Ozpin said.

Weiss sighed and put the device away in her pocket. “They are capable,” Weiss said, sitting up. “They’ll make good Hunters after another three years of training.”

Ozpin leaned forward. “And what of your partner and leader: Miss Rose. I would like a non-faculty opinion of her.”

“She’s honest, a great fighter, little too reckless for my taste, not the best leader but a decent strategist,” she said.

Ozpin frowned. “What do you mean by ‘not the best leader?’”

“To be frank, sir,” she paused. “Yang would have been the best choice.”

Ozpin leaned back. “Interesting,” he said. “However, you do not make that call, Miss Schnee.”

“Of course not.”

“I trust that you do not undermine Miss Rose’s leadership.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it, sir.”

He sighed. “I don’t know if it’s a new setting or stress, Miss Schnee, but work it out.”

“Yes sir,” Weiss nodded. She got up and headed back to the elevator. She stopped and turned back to her headmaster. “One more thing sir.”

“Yes?”

“You have a special interest in Ruby,” Weiss said. “You wouldn’t ask for me over a test score. Port could handle that. If you want to know something about Ruby just ask me directly.”

Ozpin was silent. “I have no idea what you mean, Miss Schnee.”

Weiss frowned. She stepped into the elevator and pressed the button to take her back down to the base of the tower.

“Team RWBY is very promising,” Ozpin said. He looked at Weiss. “Don’t jeopardize that.” 

The elevator doors closed.


	5. Shattered

_" Me and Professor Amber never really got along. We’ve all had teachers like that, right? I mean… technically, the first time we met she attacked me. Well, technically I attacked her. It was consensual. I mean, it was an interview for school? God, I’m making it sound worse than it was. Whatever…_

_"And, no. I don’t know where she is…”_

 

Ruby entered the amphitheater. Every student on orientation day had to have an interview with one of the faculty. Her schedule told her to meet with Professor Amber at 12:30, immediately after her lunch break. Ruby checked the time on her Scroll. She was one minute late.

At the center of the large room was an arena mostly used for practice battles between Hunters-in-training. Professor Amber stood at the center, looking at a Scroll that, from what Ruby could tell, was showing student profiles. Her most noticeable feature was her permanently scarred face that suggested she was once way too close to a raw Dust explosion. At least that’s what Ruby guessed it was. Past the scars though, she was exceptionally young for a professor at a Hunter Academy, looking like she was only a few years out of school herself.

Professor Amber finally looked at Ruby. “Oh! I’m Ruby Rose,” Ruby said. “Thank you for meeting with me.”

Amber looked Ruby up and down dismissively. “Signal student,” she read off emotionlessly. “Scythe type weapon. Speed Semblance. Aura training so far is satisfactory. Advanced two years at Headmaster Ozpin’s recommendation…” She set the Scroll down and snapped an Aura reading bracelet onto her wrist. “Ozpin may have given you a pass, but I haven’t,” she said. The professor tossed Ruby her own Aura reading bracelet.

Arming herself with a rifle spear which transformed into a much less lethal quarterstaff, Amber’s eyes flashed as an orange glow appeared around her body. Her eyes maintained a subtle glow, and Ruby could make out energy shifting around her. Ruby snapped the bracelet onto her own wrist and activated her Aura. Her and Professor Amber’s bracelets both read 100%.

Ruby folded out Crescent Rose. With her Aura activated, handling that large of a weapon was easy. Ruby checked her condition. Her strength, senses, and reflexes had been enhanced with a pulse of power. She double-checked that she had access to her Semblance and then readied herself for whatever her future professor threw at her.

“You’re going to attack me,” Professor Amber ordered. “Your combat potential, Aura and Semblance use, and general intelligence will be tested.”

Ruby nodded.

The second Amber readied herself, Ruby charged. Amber quickly blocked the attack and threw Ruby back a few steps. Even with Ruby’s speed, Amber easily defended herself with her staff, which she was only holding in her right hand.

Ruby backed up. She started to speed around the stage in multiple random directions to confuse her opponent and then charged again. Amber blocked again. Ruby repeated her strategy, but even faster. Amber still blocked every attack with her staff, but finally showed some effort.

_Okay then,_ Ruby thought. _Faster!_ Ruby started to push herself. A trail of rose petals flew through the room as she charged in again. Amber blocked but almost didn’t. Ruby charged again, then again, and then Amber didn’t make the block. Ruby got in a good slash on Amber, taking a good chunk out of her Aura.

Ruby smirked. Amber wasn’t moving around. Instead, she stood her ground at the center of the arena and was only fighting with one arm. She must’ve decided for the interview to put herself at a massive disadvantage. Not that Ruby was complaining. She charged, Amber prepared to block, but then Ruby disappeared, speeding faster than she had in the entire fight behind Amber and went in for another devastating attack.

Amber reached behind herself and blocked Crescent Rose with her left hand. That’s what it looked like, but the scythe never hit. Amber was channeling her Aura into a shield with her palm. Ruby couldn’t believe what she was looking at. Amber spun around and with the same hand pushed her Aura into Ruby’s chest, sending her tumbling to the edge of the arena.

Ruby sat up with a groan. She’d heard of advanced defensive and offensive Aura techniques, but she’d never seen them, even in tournaments. The professor was on a whole new level.

_That’s so cool!_ Ruby thought. _… ow_. That last attack took out a lot of Ruby’s Aura.

“Got too confident?” Amber said dryly. “I didn’t take you for the type. But I guess I was wrong. Underneath that coy facade is a very confident young Hunter.”

Ruby gritted her teeth and got back up.

Amber glared at her the student. “Do you think you’re special?” she said. “Because you’re not. You’re just undisciplined!”

Amber’s Aura flashed. Even at that distance, Ruby prepared for an attack. The professor’s Aura burst into fire. Her eyes flared streams of flame wider than her shoulders. Ruby’s jaw dropped. Amber’s Semblance was activated, and even from across the arena, Ruby felt like she was suddenly put into a furnace.

Ruby started running around the edge of the arena, her weapon in its gun form with Ruby taking shots with Dust rounds from a distance. As Ruby continued firing, she saw that her bullets were melting before they reached Amber, destroying them before they could do very much damage.

The professor still hadn’t moved from the center of the arena. Her Aura was doing all the fighting. Honestly, Ruby was mad she didn’t think about bringing any ice rounds on her.

Ruby did another few laps around the arena before charging in for another attack. Amber saw her coming, and her Aura flashed as she stomped her foot on the ground. A wave of fire surrounded Amber. It spread like an inferno, surrounding the center of the Arena, and Ruby just ran into it. The professor was using another Aura technique to push everything away from herself, combined with her Semblance caused an unavoidable flaming attack.

Ruby was knocked back to the edge of the arena again; the wave of fire alone had crippled Ruby’s Aura.

Amber relaxed. That last attack surely knocked the fight out of her new student. Everything at this point would be a half-hearted attempt to just let Amber finish her off as soon as possible.

Ruby got up. Using Crescent Rose as a crutch, she climbed to her feet. She gritted her teeth and held out her weapon, ready to charge again.

Amber looked mildly surprised but readied herself for another one of Ruby’s attacks.

Ruby took a second to analyze what she knew about her opponent. Professor Amber's Semblance must be causing her own Aura to deplete faster than what's typical. Semblance burns Aura as it's used, and the more powerful ones typically take more Aura to activate, especially when they are in constant use during battle. It also hurt Amber’s chances that her Semblance was directly connected to her Aura, probably damaging it as well as using it as a power source. What was left of the young professor’s Aura was probably a lot lower than she was letting on, but Ruby couldn’t know for sure. Amber’s Aura reading band was hidden behind the wall of fire that was the professor's silhouette.

Ruby looked at her wrist. Her Aura was at 31%. If she was going to win, she was going to have to risk everything in a single move. Ruby charged one last time.

Amber positioned herself to block like she had several times during the fight, but this time Ruby didn’t swing her weapon when she got in range. Just short of tackling her future professor, Ruby pushed in nearly face to face to Amber. Their Aura’s were touching, and Ruby’s was getting fried, quickly dropping close to 15%.

Ruby swung her weapon, wrapping the scythe around Amber, on the side opposite to her staff so she couldn’t block.

At this speed and this close, Amber didn’t have time to channel an Aura shield in her hands or move to block the attack. Her only chance was to attack the student first. Amber gritted her teeth and practically growled as her Semblance flared, the jets of fire from her eyes intensified.

Ruby could feel Crescent Rose’s handle burning her skin. Ruby cocked her weapon to fire a shot that would help boost her own speed to get out of Amber’s range.

A swirl of fire pooled in Amber’s free hand.

The scythe wrapped around Amber was in place, and Ruby was in position for her attack.

Amber thrust her arm forward to grab Ruby’s neck with an inferno.   

Ruby pulled the trigger.

The recoil from her own weapon as well as her Semblance launched Ruby backward. Amber’s deadly grab missed Ruby by an inch as she flew out of Amber’s range. Ruby’s weapon pulling back with her delivered a massive slash against Amber’s midsection. While flying back, Ruby could see chunks of Amber’s Aura following her mixed in with the rose petals. Amber gasped, the wind knocked out of her from such a powerful hit to her Aura.

Ruby rolled to a stop at the edge of the arena. She quickly looked at the band on her wrist. Just barely above the 10% limit. She hadn’t lost. She glanced up to see her defeated opponent.

Amber hadn't even dropped to a knee. Even after Ruby's strongest attack, Amber was still standing at the center of the arena. Through the chunk of Amber’s Aura and Semblance that Ruby cut out, she could see Amber’s wristband. Her Aura was well above 20%. The amount of Aura training that Amber must have gone through to not only maintain a Semblance like that and also take that little damage from that blow baffled Ruby.

Amber cracked her neck and dashed across the arena at Ruby. One fire Aura punch was enough to hit Ruby to the ground with a thud and knock her Aura below the 10% limit.

Ruby lay on the ground, taking a second before she would be able to move again. She deactivated her Aura. _She didn’t even move,_ Ruby thought. _She let me go for her over and over again, and I still lost..._

Amber’s Semblance calmed down and she also deactivated her Aura. “Go to the nurse’s office,” she said. Amber walked out of the arena and picked up the Scroll to check Ruby off the list, ready to meet with the next student in ten minutes.

Ruby slowly got up and picked up her weapon. It was a little scorched, but nothing that a trip to the workshop wouldn’t fix, hopefully. She folded it and put it away in its holster.

Ruby bowed. “Thank you,” she said.

Amber didn’t respond.

After a minute, Ruby left.

 

**One month later…**

 

Yang pushed open the front doors and confidently walked into the club.  She had one hand in her jacket pocket and the other holding a large heavy duffle bag. It was only halfway through the afternoon, so Junior’s club wasn’t open yet. Some employees were setting up, cleaning, etc. Getting everything ready for another night at Vale’s most popular legally questionable establishment.

One of Junior’s goons spotted her as she walked in. “Oh Jesus,” he said.

“What’s up?” Yang nodded at the guy as she walked down the steps to the club floor.

“Yeah, yeah,” he said. “What is it this time?”

Yang held up the bag.

He sighed. “Boss!” he yelled towards the back room. “She’s back!” He motioned to the bar and walked away.

Yang walked up to the bar and pulled out a stool. At least she tried to. They were bolted down, and she just yanked herself towards the bar. She composed herself and sat down, pretending nothing happened.

She looked down the bar. The twins, Melanie and Miltiades Malachite, were sitting a couple seats down from her, throwing her a pair of annoyed glances. “Hey,” Yang said with a wink. They rolled their eyes and looked back at their Scrolls.

Junior entered the room and walked up to Yang from behind the bar. “Son of a bitch,” he said. “You actually went and did it.”

“You can’t send your own muscle to beat up a couple punks?” Yang nodded to the twins.

“I don’t take chances against Semblance users,” he said. “Also you wanted a job.”

Yang put the bag on the bar and slid it towards Junior. Back before school started she asked around and found that if you wanted to know anything about anyone in Vale, you went to Junior. So she paid him and his club a visit. After a bit of a scuffle, the whole event basically ended with him saying that he wasn’t telling her anything but figured out how to move forward.

“Okay, so I do something for you, and you owe me a favor?” Yang had asked looking down at him and throwing his now broken bazooka across the dance floor.

“That’s how it works here,” he grunted.

“Call me if you need anything,” she said and walked out of the club.

“Goddamn kids,” he said while sitting up.

The next month she’d occasionally call the club to see if they had any way for her to get that favor. They never did, but she kept calling. Junior just wanted to forget about the deal, until a couple nights ago when something happened with an Atlas smuggling operation he ran. One of the under-the-counter drinks his club sold wasn’t exactly legal in Vale, but Atlas got plenty of it, so he smuggled it in with a variety of contraband. He paid the smuggler every couple of weeks, no problem, until a pack of Faunus punks dropped in and stole the money at the docks. Usually, something he would solve himself, but one of them had a Semblance. Rare enough to find criminals that low level with an Aura let alone a Semblance. They would typically be recruited pretty fast by a crime syndicate, Hunters or a corporation. And sure, he had Aura users. The twins could take care of almost any issue after a quick supernatural boost. But he might as well play it safe and call the kid that wouldn't leave him alone to deal with this.

Junior checked the bag. “Alright,” he said. He picked it up and handed it to a goon who walked towards the office. “So you want me to find this woman for you?”

“I’ll send you the stuff I have,” Yang said. “Give me a lead, and you’ll never see me again.”

“Good.”

“Oh, you’ll miss me,” Yang said.

“Blondie, first time you came in here you trashed the place,” Junior said. “You’re lucky I don’t just call us even right now.”

Yang stood up, ignoring his last comment. Things were finally looking up. She didn’t like the guy, but he had resources she didn’t and if she could use them she would. She turned to the twins one last time and gestured, “Call me.”

Miltia flipped her off.

 

* * *

 

Ruby pulled Crescent Rose out of the ribcage of the last Grimm in the area. She and Weiss were in the Emerald Forest on their partner hunt of the week. It was the end of summer; Grimm buildup got bad around this time of year, so the faculty used the problem to send out students for the experience.

Weiss sheathed her rapier and caught her breath. “I think that’s all of them,” she said.

“Eyup,” Ruby said, resting her giant scythe on her shoulder. “Break time?”

“Sure,” Weiss said as she wiped off some sweat.

“Good! I brought sandwiches.”

Weiss smiled and shrugged. “Alright.”

The two teammates sat down near the top of a cliff a dozen meters outside of the tree coverage. Ruby pulled out two sandwiches from her bag. They were a bit squished, but Weiss dealt with it.

“Great view huh?” Ruby said with her mouth full.

Weiss nodded. They were sitting above a valley in the mountain range to the east of Vale. The hills rose around them, and beneath they could see a small lake surrounded by trees.

“So, you doin’ alright?” Ruby asked. “You’ve been a little… quiet? I mean, not that… You okay?”

Weiss stopped eating. “I guess school’s just getting to me.”

“Yeah,” Ruby said. “I mean… it’s just a lot harder than Signal was, so I think I get it.”

Weiss sighed. “Honestly, I thought that Beacon would be a lot easier for… I guess a lot of reasons.” She stopped talking for a moment and then looked at Ruby. “Hey, Ruby?”

“Yeah?” Ruby took a bite out of her sandwich.

“What made you want to become a Hunter?”

Ruby took a drink from her canteen. “It was exciting,” she said. “My mom was a Hunter. Dad is too. I guess that rubbed off on me and Yang. Also, I wanted to be a hero, you know, like in the storybooks.”

There was a long silence.

“That’s idiotic,” Weiss said. “You’re a dolt.”

“Yeah, I know,” Ruby said.

Weiss nodded. “You mentioned your mom,” she said. “Summer Rose, right?”

“You knew?”

“Of course I looked up who I was getting stuck with for three years.”

Ruby laughed. “Yup,” she said. “She was the best of the best. I don’t remember her very well, but from what I do, she was awesome. But, she died on a hunt ten years ago."

Weiss nodded. “My mother died before I can remember, so I understand.”

Ruby fell silent. She smiled sadly and continued, “Around that time, Yang and I went into the woods one day. We were sorta running off. Not really. It’s complicated and I don't want to get into it, but some Beowolves attacked us. Luckily, my Uncle Qrow swooped in out of nowhere and saved us. Ever since then I’ve wanted to be a scythe-user. I based a lot of my combat off him. I mean, we have totally different combat styles, but it’s similar enough, I guess.”

“So… ever since then you also wanted to save people, like him?” Weiss said.

Ruby shrugged. “Something like that.”

“Well, at least it’s better than why I’m here,” Weiss said.

“I’m sure that’s not true,” Ruby said. After a minute of expecting a response, Ruby continued, “Come on. I told you, so you tell me.”

Weiss looked up at the clouds. She gritted her teeth but finally sighed and gave in. “My father married into the family and took the SDC in a… different direction. The truth is, what they’re saying on the news about us, the crime connections, the way we treat workers, you’ve heard it, it’s probably true, and I don’t want that to be my family’s legacy.” Weiss chuckled sadly. “I wasn’t even supposed to be the heir, but Winter left, so now it’s my responsibility to do something about it.”

Ruby nodded. “So, why become a Hunter?”

“My father would hate it," she said. "Really though, as far as I can tell, it’s the only job that actually objectively helps people by killing Grimm,” Weiss said. “Good press too. People like Hunters and public support is always good. I also like a lot of the philosophy of Hunter Academies, and I think that those would be something good to implement in my company. I want to be able to make a real difference. I just don’t know if I can.”

“Why not?” Ruby asked.

“Where I come from,” Weiss said, “storybook heroes are impossible.”

Ruby puffed out her chest and smiled. "I guess we're just going to have to prove that wrong," she said.

“Whatever,” Weiss said. She couldn’t help but smile seeing Ruby’s grin, and also… “You have mustard on your face.”

  


Ruby and Weiss sat near the cliff until the late afternoon. The sun started to sink behind the hills between them and Vale. Shadows crept up behind them and extended into the valley below. “We should head back before it gets too dark,” Ruby said.

“You’re right,” Weiss said.

As they stood up, a loud hum interrupted the quiet forest. A blast of air hit Ruby and Weiss as an airship quickly flew over them at a low altitude. The ship came to a sudden stop in the air between them and the trees. They held up their arms to shield themselves from the sound and wind from the roaring engines as a spotlight turned on, exposing them. They took a step back towards the cliff. Ruby’s cloak whipped back, almost pulling her over the edge.

A hatch opened under the ship and soldiers dressed in black repelled down to the ground. The moment they landed, they pointed Dust rifles at Weiss and Ruby. The Hunters-in-training raised their hands in the air.

A loud voice from the airship megaphone ordered: “Do not activate your Auras or you will be met with force.”

Ruby and Weiss rapidly nodded.

“Drop your weapons and stand down.”    

Weiss slowly took out her rapier and tossed it onto the grass in front of her. After a look from Weiss, Ruby did the same with Crescent Rose. At the implied request from the rifles in front of them, the two put their hands back in the air.

The ship lowered to the ground in front of the partners; the massive door underneath the ship lowered into a ramp. The secretary walked down with his arms behind his back and a smug grin on his face.

“Hello, Miss Schnee,” The secretary said. “You’ve disappointed me.”

Weiss lowered her arms. “Really?”

The secretary sighed and shook his head. “Please come with me, Miss Schnee, your father has summoned you.”

“Then he can ask me himself,” Weiss said.

The secretary frowned. “He’s not asking.”

Weiss’s back straightened.

Ruby looked at the two of them. This wasn't like Weiss. She should fight back. The Weiss she knew would always argue against something that she disagreed with. But for the first time, Ruby saw Weiss on the defensive.

The secretary motioned two of the soldiers towards Weiss. Ruby’s eyes flared red. Before the soldiers could react, Ruby had activated her Aura and in a flash, picked up Crescent Rose and stood between Weiss and The secretary, weapon ready. The soldiers all pointed their rifles at Ruby and prepared to fire. “Back off!” Ruby yelled.

“Ruby, wait!” Weiss said. She looked at the secretary who was raising an eyebrow. “Just don’t hurt her,” Weiss said to the man. She started walking towards the ship.

“What?” Ruby said. She lowered her weapon as Weiss walked past without looking back. The soldiers followed her to the ship, making sure she didn’t try to run or fight. The secretary and Weiss exchanged a glare as she and the soldiers passed him and boarded the airship.

The secretary looked over at Ruby. “Just go home little girl,” he said, turning towards the ship.

Ruby gritted her teeth and got in a charging position. The secretary activated his Aura, but Ruby knew she was faster. She sped at him, ready to cut him down before heading for the guards around Weiss.

The secretary turned and pointed his hand like a gun at Ruby. His eyes flashed like he was scanning her. Ruby jumped mid-swing to hit him with a heavy strike.

His Aura shattered before Ruby even got near him. Weiss closed her eyes. The Aura around him went from 100% to nothing in an instant. For a moment, Ruby saw a light at the tip of his hand.

A beam erupted from his finger and shot Ruby midair.

Ruby hit the ground.

Her Semblance had turned off suddenly, and she slammed against the ground, knocking the wind out of her. She struggled to climb to her feet again while gasping for air. She reached over and picked up Crescent Rose. It was strange. The scythe was heavier than it was supposed to be. Then she realized, her Aura was no longer activated.

Ruby tried to reactivate her Aura, but nothing happened. Her Aura had been completely destroyed in a single shot.

The secretary slowly walked over to Ruby. She tried to activate it again, and again. It was impossible to take out an Aura in one hit. Nothing could be that strong. Not even Professor Amber could do that to someone. The secretary discreetly unfolded a small thin blade from his jacket.

The secretary looked down at Ruby. “I’ve killed Hunters before, young lady,” he said with a voice like ice. Ruby felt something sharp in her stomach. Something cold. “You never could have won.”

Weiss screamed. She tried to activate her Aura, but one of the guards hit her before she could defend herself.

The secretary pulled out the blade. Ruby’s knees gave out, and she collapsed to the ground. The secretary took a handkerchief from his breast pocket and wiped his sword clean.

Ruby felt the side of her head hit the dirt. Breathing felt weird. It was slower than usual.

Once the secretary was done cleaning his weapon, he threw the handkerchief on the ground near Ruby before heading back to the ship.

The engines started up. The ship took off, the blast of air rushed through the forest and shook the leaves. The bloody handkerchief flew off the cliff behind Ruby.

Ruby looked up. The ship flew out of her view. She tried to reach out, but she had no strength in her arm. Her hand wouldn’t stop shaking. She wanted to call out to Weiss one more time, but her jaw was clamped shut. A few seconds later, everything went dark.


	6. Solitary Confinement

Weiss never bothered to turn on the lights. A blue glow from the city and the moon cluster shone into her dark room and cast long shadows that stretched up the walls. Weiss sat in her chair facing the door. Her father had plenty of time to install security glass and a strong Dust lock on her door while she was at Beacon, and now she was a prisoner in her own home.

Aside from the new “security” measures, Weiss’s room had remained untouched since she’d left almost two months earlier. Outside of a few personal touches, the design and layout of her room, the placement of the furniture and the wallpaper, was carefully picked out by her father. Even the garden a few floors below Weiss’s window had every hedge and white flower shaped into a perfectly designed image.

It had been over a week since she was locked up in her room with no Scroll to communicate with the outside world, or a weapon to fight her way out. Weiss knew this strategy. Her father was making her wait to wear her down. He’d done this to Winter too many times for Weiss to remember. The scary part was that it always worked.

A loud metallic clank interrupted the quiet, dark atmosphere of Weiss's room as three bolts moved to unlock the door. It swung open, and her father’s secretary entered.

“Your father will see you now,” her father’s secretary said.

He escorted her down the desaturated halls of the mansion. The house was in a wealthy district in Atlas. While it was one of many, the Schnee mansion was the highlight of this part of the city, the grandest house among them all. The Schnee home was incredibly expensive but minimalist. A grand piano or statue were the centerpieces of a room, not something to fill it. One room they passed was positioned around a large vase worth more than six Atlas city blocks.

Weiss and the secretary’s footsteps echoed loudly through the entire wing of the house. He walked a few feet behind Weiss. She calculated approximately how quickly she could activate her Aura and with her Semblance crush him into a wall. 

It wouldn’t be fast enough. 

Her father’s secretary wasn’t only skilled at being an assistant and managing a CEO's schedule, he also was his best bodyguard. Certain rare Aura-users train in anti-Hunter tactics. The secretary’s Semblance condenses his entire Aura into one attack powerful enough to destroy any target’s, leveling the playing field for a fight without Semblances or Auras, which was his specialty.

“You seem hostile,” the secretary said.

Weiss kept looking forward. “You may have killed my best friend, bastard.”

“She’ll live,” he said, “with the necessary lesson to not stand against the Schnee Dust Company.” He smirked. “Do not blame me, young miss. I am merely an extension of your father’s will.”

Weiss went over those mental calculations a couple more times.

When they reached her father’s office, the secretary said, “I have business elsewhere.” He opened the door for Weiss and motioned for her to enter. “Do behave.”

Jacques Schnee’s office was darker than the rest of his home. The walls were stained mahogany bookcases, with small windows above them letting in a small amount of natural lighting from the moon. Despite it being more decorated than most of the rooms in the mansion, the office was still perfectly organized to greet visitors. The shiny awards on the shelves to his right were angled to be best seen from the chairs across from the desk, which was elevated to make Jacques appear larger than he actually was. All to project the perfect image of a Schnee patriarch.

Weiss’s father sat behind his desk, waiting for his daughter. On both sides of the door were two guards blocking Weiss’s exit, who followed her as she walked across the room; ready to draw their sidearms if she made a move.

“Hello, Weiss,” Jacques said. He gestured to a seat in front of the desk, but Weiss was already moving to sit down. She knew the drill at this point.

There was a long silence. “So,” Weiss was the first to start, “you wanted me to go to Beacon.” She’d had plenty of time to figure out how she wanted to start this conversation.

“You would have been a valuable asset in Vale,” Jacques said.

“The only reason you let me leave was so I could spy on Ozpin for you,” Weiss said.  _ No use sending me off with that knowledge _ , she thought. Threatening to take away something was more her father’s style.

“And now that you’ve proven yourself useless in that regard as well, there is no need for you to be in Vale any longer. You couldn’t even pass my secretary’s test in Ozpin’s office. It wasn’t even a real scanner, Weiss,” Jacques said. Her pulled the device out of his desk and clicked it a bunch before tossing it uselessly aside. His secretary loved to make tests. Weiss's trial to see whether she had what it took to go to Beacon had been more extreme, to say the least, but she guessed that test was also fake. For the most part.

“You will continue your education under my watch in Atlas,” Jacques continued. He sighed. “Everything was a damn waste of time. And at the expense of your beauty as well.”

Weiss’s scar hurt for a second, but she composed herself before she thought he saw anything. “Why go through all this?” she asked. “What good is it to spy on Ozpin? You are in business with him, with the Hunters, with Vale. He’s Atlas’s ally.”

“Weiss…” He leaned back. “The relationship between Atlas and the rest of Remnant is not as smooth as it used to be. The headmasters of the Hunter academies are more powerful than you would think, and Ozpin and Ironwood have some, shall we say, radically opposing ideas about how the Kingdoms should be protected. They may not realize it yet, but a conflict between more traditional Hunters and the Atlas military is going to start soon at some scale, and the Schnee family and this company need to be on the right side of that fight when it happens.”

Ironwood’s push to appropriate Atlas’s Academy and their Hunters into specialized military forces has been an incredibly controversial topic through Remnant. One that Ozpin was very vocally against. But Ozpin wasn’t the only person who had his problems with Ironwood.

“You hate Ironwood,” Weiss said. “Why help him?”

“The general and I may have our disagreements for corrupting your sister, but the direction he’s taking security and the Atlas Council will be beneficial to our company,” Jacques said.

“That direction being fascism,” Weiss said.

“I prefer the term: Patriotic Values,” Jacques said.

“And I’m assuming that with our military contracts with Atlas, and the SDC being the largest distributor of Dust in all of Remnant, that another war, of any size, would be good for us.”

“Precisely,” Jacques said.

“You disgust me,” Weiss said.

Jacques sat up. “That’s… uncalled for.”

“What you’ve done with this company is a disgrace,” Weiss said. “The SDC used to mean something, and you’ve reduced it warmongering.”

Jacques laughed. “What  _ I’ve _ done? he asked. “Wait. Did you really just ‘in the good old days’ me? New flash, Weiss: Your grandfather taught me everything I know. And I have done a fantastic job upholding his legacy. Do you really think we had this ‘honorable’ and ‘ethical’ history that I was bastardizing? It’s only recently that people started giving a shit about our ties to the military or those animals in the mines.

“You’ve bought into all that pretty Vale propaganda history they show to kids. Even Ozpin knows that the ‘Kingdoms are stronger together’ line is bullshit, and he’s Ozpin! It’s all based on a very pretty reading of how the Great War ended in sunshine and roses. Do you know why Vale started a war with us? It wasn’t civil rights or eradicating a totalitarian regime. It was because we were allied with Mistral during a land dispute. Settlers from Vale and Mistral both wanted the same spot, and thus sparked the greatest war in modern recorded history!

“Now, unlike Ozpin, who I assure you has plenty of horror’s under his belt, I don’t lie to myself about what I’m doing. I take this world for what it is, and I use it to better this family. We rise above the rabble in the settlements because we understand that our rightful place is on top. That is what this family has always stood for, and will always stand for!”

Weiss stood up, knocking her chair to the floor. The two guards drew their pistols and aimed at her back. Jacques raised a hand, telling them to stand down.

“Damn you,” Weiss spat.

Jacques sighed. “So you’re going down the same route as your sister after all.”

“When I’m in charge of this company, I will make it my mission to personally tear down everything you’ve built! I’m going to make sure that every single generation of Schnee looks back on you in shame!”

“Unfortunately her influence was too much for you,” Jacques said calmly. “This morning we announced that you have stepped down as heir to the company and that your brother will inherit in your place.”

“Wh…” Weiss couldn’t believe this. Whitley was a spoiled brat. He wasn’t qualified to run anything. “What?”

“He shares my values and devotion to this company and the family. You brought this on yourself,” Jacques said. “I’m afraid you are a lost cause.”

“You…” Weiss felt like she should be more shocked. She hadn't predicted this, but now that it was happening it made sense. He’d done with before after all. Of course Winter didn't step down herself. It was all him. Why did she think she couldn’t be replaced like Winter?

Weiss steadied her breathing. She stood up straight, adjusted her sleeves and looked up at the windows to her left. “What happens now?” she said.

“For the time being,” Jacques said, “you will remain in the mansion under supervision. Until your future is decided, that is.”

Weiss looked a little further down at one of her father’s more reflective awards that showed the room behind her. Two guards. Their guns were back in their holsters. Both, after her outburst, standing less than a meter behind her ready to draw their weapons again at the first sign of trouble. Assuming that they could see it coming.

She was done. Her whole life was just a stretched out version of what was happening in this room. Honestly, she was starting to realize that there really wasn’t a difference between her and the wallpaper in her father’s eyes. That was a lot easier to see after only a little over a month out of this house, and Weiss was never going back to that.

Weiss spun around and punched the guard on her left’s throat. He fell to the ground immediately. Weiss grabbed his gun as he fell, turned and shot out both of the other guard’s kneecaps before smacking him across the face with the pistol. 

She turned the gun on Jacques and activated her Aura.

Jacques jumped up from his seat and held his arms out in panic. “Now… Now, Weiss.” Jacques said. He swallowed and tried to keep a calm face, eyes darted back and forth from the gun to the alarm button under the desk. “Think about what you’re doing. I can give you what you want. You want the company back? I can make that happen. Okay… Just, put the gun down.”

Keeping the gun aimed at her father, Weiss took some ammo from the guard on the ground who was trying to breathe. Never breaking eye contact, Weiss backed out of the office and started running down the hallway.

The alarm sounded throughout the whole mansion.

Mid-sprint, Weiss switched her ammo to lightning stun rounds. If she was going to get out of this, she was going to have to get off the property before all the guards converged on her.

Three guards came around the hallway corner, pointed their weapons and fired. Two shots missed, and Weiss blocked the third with a glyph. She fired back, causing them to duck behind the corner.

Using another glyph, Weiss kicked off one wall and jumped onto the other. With a line of glyphs, she ran along the side of the hallway across from the corner, using the new vantage point to shoot two guards. 

Before the third guard could react, she pushed off with a black glyph and body slammed him before quickly regaining her footing and stunning him twice in the chest. She took off running as all three guards twitched from the taser rounds.

Weiss reached the main hall and leaped down the two staircases to the main floor. On the sides of her were two large suits of armor, and in front of her, below a giant round stained glass window depicting the Schnee crest, was the exit.

Her plan was to get out of the house, then steal a ride from the garage. She'd lose her pursuers in the city, probably by switching cars as soon as possible and plan from there.

Frankly, Weiss was improvising all of this.

As she hit the bottom of the stairs, one of the suits of armor’s mechanical gaze followed Weiss as she ran.

The hidden armored golem leaped from its stand and landed between Weiss and the exit. She switched to fire Dust rounds and started shooting. The golem staggered slightly, but still charged at her.

Weiss summoned a glyph to move out of the way, but was a second too late.

The golem hit her first, sending her flying a few meters to the center of the hall where she collapsed.

Following its subdue protocol and the golem grabbed Weiss’s arms and spread them out, immobilizing her. She was raised to her knees, captured, as a dozen guards entered the hall and surrounded her.

Weiss struggled to escape the literal iron grip as Jacques stormed in from the top of the stairs. Even with her Aura, the machine was too strong to pull herself free.

“You are an embarrassment!” Jacques screamed. 

He quickly walked down the stairs, up to Weiss and struck her across the face. But his bare hand against her Aura shocked him, knocking him staggering backward. 

“Fuck!” Jacques grabbed his hand.

Weiss smirked. 

Jacques gritted his teeth and yanked one of the guard’s guns from them and pointed it at Weiss. She gasped and flinched. He fired four times with Dust rounds, the final shot shattering her Aura.

Jacques shoved the barrel of the gun against Weiss’s unprotected forehead. “First your mother, then your sister and now you!” he spat. “Why won’t the women in this family do what they’re told!” He threw the gun at one of his guards who clumsily caught it.

His breathing was heavy as he paced back and forth in front of Weiss. Jacques pulled a small knife from his jacket and fiddled with it.

He stopped in front of Weiss and slowly looked at the scar over her left eye. He turned towards the uninjured side of her face. He grinned while gnashing his teeth together. “How about a matching set, Weiss?”

Weiss pulled harder to free herself from the golem. She felt like she was going to rip her arms out of their sockets as she squirmed and thrashed around. 

Jacques took a slow step towards her, knife pointed at her right eye.

The stained glass window above them exploded.

Glass rained down on everyone in the hall. It was like a cannonball had burst through the window. The guards and Jacques flinched and shielded their faces from the transparent shrapnel. 

Weiss looked up. A flurry of red petals mixed in with the shards. Through the rain of glass, shining like a crimson bullet with Crescent Rose above her head and ready to strike down with an incredible righteous fury, was Ruby Rose.


	7. The Best Team Ever!

_ “Oh yeah! The whole Atlas thing. That was a weird week. _

_ "After Weiss was taken and I got… stabbed, I woke up in a hospital back in Vale. Beacon tracks its students in the field in case their Aura shatters, so I got picked up pretty quick. Once my Aura recovered, I healed up in a couple days. Professor Amber really stressed Aura-healing, and it turned out that I’m good at it, lucky me. Still a scar. It’s a little badass, but too small to really show off, you know. _

_ “When Dad called, I had to convince him I was fine and calm him down. May have lied about that a little. Blake and Yang refused to leave the hospital until I woke up. Afterward, Yang tore up the entire gym in a rage once she found out what happened to me and Weiss. Even Ozpin was pretty pissed about the whole thing. One of his students had been stabbed and another kidnapped, and there was nothing he could do about it. ‘Officially,’ Weiss had suddenly left Beacon to go back home for health reasons. Even Ozpin’s influence can only go so far outside of Vale, so… while I’m here I might as well admit it… I may have decided to take things into my own hands. _

_ “Yang was pumped to get some revenge for me and rescue Weiss, and Blake said that she didn’t need an excuse to fuck over the SDC, and she also seemed in a rush to save Weiss. I think that was the first time Blake was concerned for her safety. She definitely tried to get along with Weiss a lot more after that. _

_ “We smuggled ourselves into Atlas through Yang connection to a shady bartender. He owed her a favor so he hid us in the bottom of a cargo ship all the way up there. We planned on scoping out the Schnee mansion because we heard on the news that’s where Weiss was staying, but when we got there, the alarms were going off, and all the guards were rushing into the house. With everyone distracted, we decided to get in while we could. Yang and Blake went around the house to find a good place to sneak in while I was their lookout, but right after they left, I heard a fight inside the front. I just wanted Weiss out of there as fast as possible, so I decided to rush in. She kinda holds back my impulsiveness a lot of the time so I can get a little crazy without her there to stop me, so… I just busted in through the biggest window I could find…” _

 

Ruby swung her scythe, decapitating the Golem holding Weiss. Its head crashed against the shattered glass on the floor. Ruby landed between Weiss and Jacques, and with a whack from her scythe’s staff, sent him flying into two of his guards.

The Golem lost power as its Dust engine shut down. It let go of Weiss and fell to join its head on the ground. Weiss rubbed her arm and looked up at Ruby. The wind coming through the shattered window blew some of Ruby’s petals around them, her cape softly fluttered as she turned around towards Weiss, her shining eyes glowing through her dark hair.

“Oh!” Ruby said. She turned to look at Jacques and the two guards struggling to climb off the ground. “He didn’t have any Aura at all… is he okay?”

“Ruby?!” Weiss stood up. “What are you doing here?”

Ruby turned back towards Weiss. “I came to pick you up.”

“But… what? How?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

Jacques finally got back on his feet, as all the guards in the room finally snapped out of their surprise and pointed their weapons at Ruby and Weiss.

“Who the hell…?” Jacques saw that his guards weren’t actively killing the intruder. “What are you waiting for?” he screamed. “Kill her!”

They all fired. Ruby activated her Semblance and in a burst of speed and rose petals, grabbed Weiss by the waist and pulled her out of the crossfire. The center of the room was pulverized by gunshots, with Ruby and Weiss nowhere in sight.

The guards took a second to realize that Ruby had moved in an instant to the far corner of the room and they aimed their weapons again. Most of the guards were on the main floor, but a few were on the balcony adjacent to the staircase. Weiss blinked a few times to get over the dizziness from moving that fast and blushed at Ruby’s arm around her waist.

Ruby let go of her partner and held on to her weapon with both hands. Now that Weiss was out of the center of the fight, she could go all out. She grinned and charged.

One guard had his weapon slashed in half before getting bashed halfway through a wall. Another was hit into a different soldier from the front, while the other guard was sent flying into the first in the same second. None of the guards could keep up with her. When any of them caught a glimpse of her red cloak, before they were done turning to respond, she was behind one of them disarming them and striking them with the back of her blade. Jacques tried to scramble away from the battle, but Ruby kicked him through a doorway, sending him sprawling on the dining room floor.

From the floor above, it was a little easier to keep track of Ruby. The three guards on the balcony started firing their pistols. Ruby leapt to the side to avoid the first volley and spun her scythe to block the next. Jacques used the distraction to clamber to his feet and run past the fallen bodies of his men and up the stairs where he disappeared down a hallway.

Ruby dashed into a position where she had a clear shot of all three of their guns. She transformed Crescent Rose into a rifle and with three shots destroyed all their weapons, shooting them right out of their hands. Before the guards could react, Ruby rushed underneath the balcony, transformed Crescent back into a scythe and slashed through all the support columns before zooming back to the center of the hall as the guards and the floor beneath them crashed onto the main floor.

Ruby looked around the room as the dust and petals settled. Weiss walked back up to her not even trying to hide her awe of the destruction her partner caused. “Well,” Ruby said, “honestly that was-- Ow! Shit!” She clutched her abs and bent over.

“Are you okay?!” Weiss asked.

“Yeah,” Ruby said. “Just stabbed, you know.” She laughed.

“What the hell?! You shouldn’t be--”

Jacques burst back into the room from the upstairs hallway, holding a comically large rocket launcher. “Damn Hunters!” he yelled and fired a shot down at Ruby and Weiss.

Ruby activated her Semblance in a burst of power and scanned the room. Ruby could zoom both her and Weiss out of the house, but the blast would kill the unconscious men at her feet. She pulled out Crescent Rose into its sniper form and shot at the rocket halfway to her position. Hoping that with her speed she would make the shot in time. Sure the blast would still hurt a lot of people in the room, and blow out all the windows, minus the one that Ruby already broke, but it wouldn’t kill anyone. Probably.

The projectiles met in the center of the room, and an explosion started to rip through the entire hall. Ruby put away Crescent Rose and scooped Weiss in her arms as she dashed for the exit. Jacques, who was not prepared for the blast to be as close as it was, was blasted back through the hallway that he came in through, breaking a couple ribs in the process.

Ruby broke the front doors off their hinges as the explosion filled the room behind her. Still holding Weiss in her arms, she flew over the front steps and down to the gravel driveway below. Weiss wrapped her arms around Ruby’s neck to hold on to something and looked up at her savior’s face. Ruby was grinning like an idiot, and Weiss never wanted this moment to end.

Ruby managed to stick the landing, with a slight wobble, and nervously grinned at Weiss in her arms.

“You good?”

Weiss looked up and down Ruby and finally snapped out of her trance. “Put me down,” she said frowning. 

Ruby blushed and set Weiss carefully down before coughing nervously to try to break the tension.

A slow clap in front of them turned their attention to a figure in the yard.

“Well done,” the secretary said. 

He was standing a dozen meters in front of the pair, so inhuman that if he hadn’t started clapping, Ruby might have mistaken him for a bleached marble statue. 

Weiss took a step towards him, teeth clenched, but Ruby held her back.

“Go find Yang and Blake so we can get out of here,” Ruby said. She walked in front of Weiss and transformed out Crescent Rose.

“What...what about you?” Weiss asked.

Ruby looked back at her partner and grinned. “I can take him.” Weiss was about to say, No you can’t, or, You have objectively proven that you can’t. But then Ruby said, “I got this.”

Weiss couldn’t find words. She sighed and turned to go. Looking back, she wanted to say something inspirational or helpful but instead started running to find her other teammates, hoping to get back with them before Ruby ran out of ways to stall the secretary.

As soon as Weiss was out of sight, the secretary spoke up. “I have to admit, I am surprised to see you so soon.”

Ruby said nothing.

“I wonder what it would take to break you,” he said, a smile creeping on his lips.

“You know,” Ruby finally spoke up. She removed her hood and glared at her enemy with silver eyes. “I’m not a very good leader. I’m not as good at fighting as everyone says I am. My Aura depletion rate needs a lot of work. And, honestly, you scare the hell out of me.”

He smirked.

“But you hurt my friend.” Ruby’s Aura blazed.

“Then you wish to fight me again?” The secretary activated his Aura. “Very well. Though, I don’t expect much.”

Ruby charged.

  
  


The girl in red charged. She whipped in multiple directions initially to futilely throw him off before striking. She was definitely one of the faster fighters he’d faced, but she wasn’t fast enough. The secret of the secretary’s Semblance was that once activated, his perception of time slowed down, which was necessary for how accurate his one shot had to be.

The girl leapt in for the real strike. The secretary activated his Semblance and the world around him became quiet. It felt like space rippled and slowed down. The petals behind the girl stopped in mid-air, and the wind blowing through the leaves and blades of grass froze. The secretary’s arm started to slowly lift to point his hand at the girl suspended in air, very slowly moving towards him. Because of her speed, he needed to be as accurate as possible, barely missing would mean losing the fight, and frankly, even this child was smart enough to pick up on that for a rematch.

The secretary raised his eyebrow for just a moment. It didn’t matter how fast she moved, he would easily defeat her. Even this child couldn't be this much of a fool to try this asinine of a strategy. But at the slow speed that he was perceiving time, while his arm was still inching into position, he saw what she had up her sleeve. 

The girl had let go of her weapon mid-air the moment that he had activated his Semblance. 

By discretely letting go of such a large weapon, she would slightly change how fast her Semblance would propel her towards him, just fast enough to dodge his precise shot if he didn’t notice and failed to account for this change in velocity.

_ A smart move, _ he thought.  _ Excellent early signs of a strategic mind. Such a waste. _

The secretary adjusted his finger as it finally reached position. His Aura shattered and condensed into his fingertip. His perception of time rippled back to normal, and just as expected, the girl’s weapon flew behind her, and she charged in faster than ever. 

He blasted a beam towards the girl. She was hit right in the chest while flying towards him, shattering her Aura.

_ All too easy, _ the secretary thought. He smiled as the girl fell towards him, now rendered powerless, but still raising one of her arms...

Ruby punched him in his smug face.

_ What?!   _

Shattering her Aura hadn’t slowed down her momentum. Her punch might as well hit him at her full power. 

He looked into her silver eyes on impact. That determination he saw in her at the beginning of the fight was still there. She’d been planning this fight from the second he beat her the first time. Planning exactly how to defeat a superior opponent. 

And it all ended with that punch.

  
  


“Ow!” Ruby shook her hand. She was pretty sure that she sprained it. Probably broke it. I mean, what else could she have expected from hitting a man in the face at supersonic speed without Aura. The secretary had been sent flying across the lawn from her attack and was currently sprawled out unconscious a few meters away.

The rest of her team came sprinting around the house a minute later. Weiss lead the charge around the corner followed by Blake, who already had Gambol Shroud drawn, and Yang, who had a large duffel bag slung over her shoulder but was still ready to fight.

“What the hell?!” Weiss yelled. “You beat him?”

“I said I would,” Ruby said.

“I know, it’s just… wow.”

Yang walked over to the unconscious secretary. “So this is the bastard that hurt my baby sister, eh?”

“He’s down Yang,” Blake said walking up to Ruby. “You alright?”

“Yeah, just hit him really hard.” Ruby rubbed her hand. Definitely broke something. She and Blake turned at the sound of a loud kick. “Yang!”

“Sorry, I tripped,” Yang said. She kicked him again. “Oops.”

“Give him one for me,” Weiss said.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She kicked him again.

Sirens signaled the team that the Atlas police were getting close to their location, probably alerted by the gunfire and explosion. “We should probably get out of here,” Ruby said.

“Yep,” Yang said. She tossed Weiss the duffle bag. “There you go.”

Weiss looked in the bag. Myrtenaster was inside, freshly cleaned and ready to be returned to its rightful owner. 

“I… you guys…”

“No time,” Yang said. “We gotta go.”

The team jumped the fence and started booking it into the heart of the city. “What’s the plan?” Weiss asked, slinging the bag over her shoulder.

“Ruby didn’t make a plan past this point,” Blake said.

“Oh my god,” Weiss groaned.

They ran out of the upper-class district and turned down an alley as the police cars rushed past them. Running between the buildings, the four of them sprinted through Atlas. Weiss looked up at the shattered moon between the tops of the towers above her. For some reason, the sky felt a lot bigger than it used to.

“Hey, Weiss!” Ruby panted next to her. “RWBY’s the best team. Always has been, always will be.” She looked over at Weiss and smiled. “Isn’t that right?”

Weiss looked at her friend. “Hmph.” And as they escaped into the night, for the first time in a really long time, she smiled.


	8. Exposed

“Basic history refresher.” Professor Oobleck put down his chalk, took a sip from his thermos and turned towards his class. A surprisingly detailed map of Mistral and its yearly weather patterns was behind him. “After the Faunus Rebellion, the White Fang was originally set up to foster human and Faunus relations into a more peaceful age. Back in those days, the way that Faunus were treated was, frankly, horrific, occasionally barbaric, but even though in modern times we have laws that counter the discriminations Faunus faced, the White Fang still persists, now as a force that is threatening to unbury old conflicts. Ironic, isn’t it?”

With incredible speed, Oobleck reached down to his desk and lifted up a potted purple flower. “Now, what, I ask of you my students, does any of this have to do with Mistral Petunias?”

After class, Team RWBY shuffled out of the lecture hall along with the rest of their fellow students.

“But what do flowers have to do with the Faunus Rebellion though?” Yang said.

“Various conflicts involving Dust weapons affecting the balance of nearby ecosystems,” Ruby said. “Weren’t you paying attention?”

Weiss and Yang exchanged a look. A silent moment of solidarity to cope with Ruby’s unnatural ability to keep up with the caffeinated professor.

It had been a month since the Atlas incident and, for the most part, RWBY’s school lives had returned to normal. As soon as Ruby busted Weiss out of her own house, all hell broke loose. They barely snuck back into Vale in one piece and definitely not without making a lot of noise. Luckily, Ozpin extended his influence to protect Ruby’s team from any consequences or retaliation from the SDC and was allowing Weiss to keep attending Beacon, giving her some semblance of a home until she graduated and could support herself as a Hunter. Jacques was still pissed though. She’d been publicly disowned and had her accounts taken from her. But even with Ozpin’s protection, Ruby was surprised he hadn’t sent that secretary bastard after them again. After blowing up his house and un-kidnapping his daughter, nothing had happened. No SDC hitmen or legal battles. Nothing. Things were, somehow, going pretty great for them at Beacon. The four Hunters-in-training were at the top of their class and only getting better. By now the entire school at least knew their names, and that under Ruby’s leadership they were a force to be reckoned with. Also, between rumors about what happened in Atlas and some vigilantism in Vale, they were also getting a reputation of being Beacon’s troublemakers. But Ruby chose to ignore that.

“Well, my morning’s been a waste,” Weiss said as they started walking across campus. “Come on everyone, I’m buying lunch.”

“Where’d you get money?” Yang asked.

Weiss froze; then slumped in despair.

Yang patted her back. “Welcome to the common folk, Weiss.”

“We’re all wearing our weapons,” Weiss said. “If I kill you I can get away with self-defense.”

Ruby laughed and glanced over at Blake. She looked... Ruby wasn't sure. Her body was tense, like a wind-up toy that wouldn't go. Ruby couldn't tell if Blake was angry or scared. It looked like both.

“You alright?” Ruby asked while Yang and Weiss talked.

Blake stood up straight. “Where are we going for lunch?” she asked.

“Well, apparently the cafeteria,” Ruby said. “You didn’t hear the whole…?”

“I heard,” Blake snapped and walked faster to keep up with Weiss and Yang.

_ Ooookay _ , Ruby thought. She looked forward, figuring that now wasn’t a good time and went back to paying attention to her sister and partner, but still occasionally glanced over to see how Blake was doing.

Weiss sighed. “I guess you could say that a Hunter’s life without money is pretty Grimm?” Weiss looked at Yang for approval, but she frowned

“You broke her one pun rule,” Ruby groaned.

“What?” Weiss said.

“Yeah, Grimm is too easy,” Yang said. “Never partake.”

“Oh, so  _ now _ you have standards!”

They finally got to the cafeteria and started waiting in the lunch line. The buzz of the students all around them chatting drowned out the noise of the TV on the wall. The rows of teens and young adults with a wide variety of weapons patiently waiting for food was a bizarre sight, but by now Ruby was used to it. Goodwitch’s class was going to meet in the fields today so everyone had gotten their combat gear and weapons ready to go right after lunch.

Ruby looked to the side of the line to see what was on the menu. “They never have Vacou food,” she grumbled.

Weiss groaned. “Of course  _ you _ like Vacou food.”

“Truly, a spectacular pallet I have,” Ruby said.

Weiss laughed. “You know what? That was unfair. Velvet introduced me to a Vacou coffee that was delightful.” Weiss did a dramatic chef kiss.

“You and your second-year friends,” Yang said. “Already advancing past us mere freshmen?”

“I’ll send you a postcard,” Weiss said.

Despite Weiss’s entire life falling apart, she was handling things pretty well. She was more interested in her training, getting along better with her team, and even started to hang out with Velvet from CFVY. Velvet wanted to try shooting photos of models and enlisted Weiss as her subject. Weiss seemed embarrassed by it when her teammates tried to learn more, but she was clearly having a good time with her new hobby.

The TV channel on the cafeteria wall transitioned into a news report. Ruby caught a look at what the reporters were facing. The news crew was standing in front of an abandoned Dust mine and refinery, which, according to the subtitles, was located about seventy or so miles outside of Atlas. Local Grimm activity forced the company to move to a different location, and now that the Grimm had left, it was a good opportunity for an investigation into allegations about Faunus work conditions. The building was rundown. Frost clung to the weeds growing out of the cracks in the concrete, and the chain link fences had been shredded by passing Grimm.

“So the JNPR fight is next Monday, right?” Weiss asked.

Ruby turned back away from the TV. Goodwitch’s class was starting to have Team v.    
Team fights this month. “Yep,” Ruby said. 

“We’ll crush ‘em,” Yang smirked.

“Wow, you really are taking that fight from last week really hard aren’t you?” Ruby said.

“I would’ve won if that ice cream brat played fair!”

Ruby rolled her eyes.

“Well  _ I _ am confident in our team’s abilities as well,” Weiss said.

“Thank you,” Yang said.

“Don’t underestimate Jaune,” Ruby said. “He’s got some tricks up his sleeve.” Ruby chuckled under her breath. She’d warned them before that he was taking to being a leader pretty fast. That combined with what she’d heard he was picking up from his training with Pyrrha would make a good surprise for her team. Also, she had just happened to sit in during some of his team composition practices a while back, which was knowledge she certainly wouldn’t mind using when they faced JNPR in a few days.

Ruby briefly looked over to the TV again. The cameraman had moved into the facilities. It was small and cramped and surprisingly low tech, even for something that only stopped running a year ago. Common knowledge safety procedures had not been kept up with, but it was hard to tell for sure what was negligence and what just looked bad because it was an abandoned refinery.

The report really caught Ruby’s attention when the footage showed a cage. It was small, not even tall enough for a child to stand up straight or lay down in. The camera panned to the side, showing a row of kennels down a hallway. Ruby’s appetite was gone at that point.

“I’ll be back soon...” Blake said. She quickly turned from her team and started walking out of the cafeteria. “Don’t wait for me.”

“What about…” Yang said, but Blake had already walked away. Yang, along with Ruby and Weiss, turned and watched her leave. “Okay, that was weird.”

Blake walked out of sight, leaving her teammates to deal with the lunch line by themselves.

 

* * *

 

Blake shut the door behind her. She’d escaped to the only nearby private place she could think of, her dorm room, but the air was suffocating, like she’d opened a tomb and sealed it shut behind her. She pretended that was why she was having trouble breathing. Blake walked over to the medicine cabinet in the bathroom and grabbed a painkiller for her head. She'd woken up with a headache and had been on edge all morning.

After chugging down a glass of water with her medicine, Blake went back into the main room and walked from the bathroom door to the other end, and then back, over and over. It was really stupid, she told herself. She shouldn’t lose her cool this easily. It was just a bad day. From the lecture to that news report, everything was out to get her.  _ Of all the times to have that on TV, why today? _ she thought. She just glanced over and there they were, out of nowhere, and now she couldn’t blink without seeing them.

Blake’s Aura activated.

“Shit!” Blake said. Aura is mostly consciously activated, but for those with one unlocked, when the body senses danger or has too much adrenaline rushing through it, Aura will self-activate as a defense mechanism.

_ I’m way more upset than I should be, _ Blake thought.  _ This is really not that big of a deal.  _ Blake moved her mental switch to shut off her Aura, but it didn’t disappear. She tried again. And again. Her breathing started to shake even worse than before.

After opening the window to get some fresh air in, Blake stepped into the middle of the room, centering herself both mentally and physically. She breathed in and out over and over. She wasn’t sure if it did any good to calm her Aura down, but it was better than pacing around endlessly.

She tried to downplay it. She’d seen them before, dozens of them, but they weren’t empty back then. She’d seen them shaking as a pressure hose sprayed them down, blasting away at the occupants inside the cages, the roar of the water still somehow not enough to drown out their cries.

The pressure in her head was killing her. Why hadn’t the pain meds kicked in by now? It felt like her skull was getting squashed and splitting under the pressure. She usually could put up with it whether she was sleeping or fighting, even just sitting around. It isn't that bad, she told herself. It isn’t that bad. It isn’t that bad. It--

Blake pulled at her bow. After the first tug it got tangled up in her hair, but she did it again and ripped it off her head before wrapping it around her palm.

Blake’s Faunus ears perked up. She inhaled and leaned against the bunk bed post. She ran her hand through her hair, scratching an itch that had been with her all day. She could hear the wind outside, some crows cawing at each other over some trash, students walking to and from lunch. The world around her finally clicked into normal speed.

_ Honestly, that one wasn’t too bad _ , she thought to herself. She steadied her breathing into a comfortable rhythm.  _ It didn’t last too long. You’re okay. _

Ruby opened the door.

“Hey, Blake? You okay? I--” Ruby froze. “Uhhh…”

They stared at each other, Blake’s eyes wide. Ruby’s gaze went from the ears, to eye contact with Blake, back to the cat ears.

“Oh…”

Blake’s figure became a shadow and vanished. A blur leapt through the window, leaving Ruby standing alone in the dorm room.

 

 

Blake finally stopped to rest. She’d been wandering Vale in a near panic for the last nine hours. It was dark out, and she’d stopped for just a second in an alley right next to the docks and industrial warehouses. During the afternoon, she'd walked around in the residential district right outside of Beacon, but she never stayed in any place long after imagining Ruby showing up right behind her. She couldn’t deal with that right now, she didn’t even want to think about it. So she kept making her way through side streets and back alleys to the west end of the city, careful not to run into any Vale police. She’d forgotten to leave Gamble Shroud behind when she bolted, and Vale wasn’t as lose with its Hunter-class weapon laws as the settlements were.

She figured that while she was resting, she might as well tough it up and think about damage control. Blake thought about lying or bribing Ruby, assuming that she hadn't told the rest of the team she was a Faunus yet, which she probably had by this point. By now the three of them were probably out hunting her down, but she could always escape. She started going over plans about how she would sneak back into her dorm, get her stuff and run… again.

Blake looked out of the alley towards a cargo ship to her left. Large containers had been taken off the ship, stacked and stored in rows and ready to be shipped into Vale in the morning. The dock workers had just finished their work for the night and were leaving after a long day. There were a few guards left watching the boat and cargo, but for the most part, the dock was empty. It would be so easy to sneak past them. If she just hopped on board that ships, she could get away to anywhere she wanted. Just one dock away from erasing this problem forever.

But, as much as she wanted to get away, she came to Beacon for a reason. She applied and interviewed and put up with the professors and headmaster for a reason, but the longer she spent with Hunters, the less sure she was that she could do it; the less sure that becoming a Hunter was what she was looking for. The only way she would know is if she finished. She hadn’t even finished the first semester, did she really think she could make it a whole three years without her team finding out about her being a Faunus? The plan was that she was going to distance herself. Not let anyone close enough to find out. She wasn’t supposed to become friends with anyone.

Blake thought back to the first day of her time at Beacon. She stared up at the CCTS tower. It was much taller than she thought it would be. She sat down on a bench with a book, discreetly eyeing the other new students walking around campus during orientation. One of the first she noticed was Weiss. “Oh god,” she mumbled.  _ A Schnee. God, kill me now to get it over with. _

A while later, a pair of new students caught her attention by how much they stood out. One had bright yellow hair and the other was hiding her face behind a red cloak. She could tell they were also from a settlement from how they also looked at how tall the CCTS tower was. At least Blake wasn’t the only one who would have to deal with most of the student’s Kingdom bias. As expected, she didn’t see any other Faunus.

Blake took a closer look at the red hooded student. The girl happened to look in Blake’s direction, and they made eye contact. She was borderline terrified. Anxious of everything around her, but barely holding back so much glee and pure excitement that she was here, finally at Beacon Academy.

A thought popped into Blake’s head when she saw the girl,

_...Cute. _

Blake quickly looked down at her book before the girl thought she was staring. A few seconds later she peaked back up. The girl had kept walking with the taller blonde; probably hadn’t even noticed Blake. Blake sighed in relief, but was also a little disappointed.

Before she’d realized, those three idiots had become her friends. Despite Blake’s half-hearted attempts, Yang immediately forced her way into her life. The school was right to team them up. They made for a great balance between stealth and aggression, both bringing out more skills in each other just by working together. Yang also worked well for the team. Her big sister characteristics didn’t only extend to Ruby. Whether she knew it or not, Yang helped a lot with Blake getting used to her new environment.

Somehow, she also didn’t mind hanging out with Weiss these days. She was more than just her family name, and once you got past some personality flaws, she wasn’t that bad. The time they went out and got tea and coffee, just the two of them, was a surreal but enjoyable morning.

Then there was Ruby. Blake would never have imagined that girl would become a Team’s leader, let alone  _ her _ Team’s leader. When they met for the first time after she was assigned to Ruby’s team, Blake decided to remain professional and try to forget about what she thought when she first saw her. Not that Ruby made it easy. Blake let a smile escape for a moment.

Blake’s reminiscing was interrupted by the sound of a guard grunting in pain and collapsing to the ground. She pushed herself up against the alley wall. Peeking around the corner, she saw all the guards simultaneously knocked out by men and women dressed in black.

In under a minute they had control of the dock and one of the shipping containers surrounded. They opened its doors to check the contents: Dust, and a lot of it.

Another figure walked out of the shadows towards them while twirling his cane. “Excellent work gentlemen, and ladies,” Roman said. “Our extraction should arrive…” he checked his watch, “...now.”

An airship flew overhead and hovered directly above the criminals. It lowered until it dropped a dozen cables to hook onto the container.

_ Not again, _ Blake thought. Just her luck. She turned to leave. Fighting them would cause too much attention, and that’s the last thing she wanted right now. Plus, even if she wanted to stop the thieves, there were too many of them. She wasn’t sure she could take on all of them.

But, she couldn’t help but imagine Ruby standing beside her, weapon already drawn and leaping into action. Was Blake really scared enough of a fight that she forgot why she wanted to become a Hunter in the first place? She looked from her hiding place at the criminals. Roman was yelling at his fellow thieves to hurry it up. In a minute, they would be done and she could wash her hands of this. Pretend it never happened.

Blake drew her weapon and released the safety. That’d always been the thing that held her back compared to the people close to her. They were always willing to take that leap. Blake didn’t have what they had. She couldn’t do the right thing no matter what.

And frankly, Blake was sick of it.


	9. The Promise

_ “After we rescued Weiss, I think we got a little addicted to adventure because we started crime fighting. In the month after the whole Atlas thing, we came across Roman and Neo about two or three times during some of their Dust heists. We were in way over our heads and we didn't know why they were pulling these big heists but we didn’t really care. It was weirdly fun going after those two…” _

 

Blake locked her blade against Roman’s cane. He took a step back before he managed to throw Blake off of him and barely blocked her next series of attacks. She combined her weapon into its machete form and slammed it down on him. Roman backed off again, blocking as well as he could. His accomplices were split up between securing the straps on the Dust container, lying unconscious from Blake’s sneak attacks before she started fighting Roman, and the rest were ready to shoot at her as soon as their employer was out of the way.

As soon as he got an opening, Roman dove backward behind a crate as the rest of the criminals opened fire. Blake’s shadow disappeared as a few Dust rounds tore through it. One of the goons was struck over the head as Blake reappeared. She threw her ribbon around another’s throat and pulled them into another two before she leapt towards the rest of the thieves.

“So, where are your friends, Blake?” Roman shouted. He leaned to the side of his cover and took pot shots with another one of his goons. “What? Red didn’t want to go another round?”

His accomplices finished up hooking the crate to the airship and called out to Roman, “We’re good to go!” They all drew their weapons and also shot at Blake, causing her to turn towards them and dodge a new set of bullets.

Taking advantage of Blake being occupied, Roman fired another shot from his cane. Blake dodged but caught another bullet in the side, taking a chunk of her Aura with it. She grunted and transformed her weapon into its pistol mode. She fired at the thieves by the container, the one who’d just shot her took a round in the shoulder, and the rest ducked behind cover. Using their brief retreat as an opening, Blake sprinted for the airship. This was Roman’s biggest Dust theft so far, and she couldn’t let a criminal get away with that much potential weaponry.

Out of nowhere, Roman was behind her and swinging his cane at the back of her head. Blake’s shadow vanished as he made contact, the real Blake appearing behind him. She pulled off her sheath and slammed it into the back of his skull. 

Roman’s figure shattered into glass.

A shot hit Blake in the back. Roman was still behind the crate with a smoking cane ready to shoot her again. Blake staggered to the side, only for the “ice-cream girl” as Ruby and Yang called her, who had been sitting out the fight until the right opportunity, to run up and trip her by hitting her in the back of the legs with her umbrella.

Blake hit the ground, Gamble Shroud sliding just out of arm’s reach. She moved to grab it, but Neo kicked the gun to the side and stood over her. Neo pulled a long blade out of her umbrella and pointed it at Blake’s neck. Blake looked up at the smirking little woman. She couldn’t move, also her Aura was getting pretty low; now that Neo was here she didn’t stand a chance, especially considering she just got beaten by her own trick. When they came across Neo before, even Yang had trouble with this little freak.

The airship’s engines roared as it started to carry off the Dust supply. The ship rose into the night sky and moved out over the sea, away from the city until it was out of Blake’s sight.

“You know,” Roman said, leaving his cover and twirling his cane as he walked over to Neo’s side, “your obvious disguise aside, I didn't think you were stupid enough to pick a fight without backup.”

Blake gritted her teeth. The other criminals on the ground she hadn’t taken down started leaving the crime scene before the cops showed up. Blake lifted her chin and glared into Neo’s mismatched eyes, not showing an ounce of fear. Neo frowned.

Roman sighed. “Really?” He shrugged and checked his weapon for ammo. “No one to save you?”

“Heeyah!!!”

A red-caped blur burst onto the scene feet first into Roman’s side, sending them both across the dock and through one of the empty containers.

Neo and Blake exchanged a look, and then slowly turned their heads towards the hole in the metal container.

One of the criminals that had already left spoke over Roman and Neo’s radios. “Hey, you guys okay over there? Hello? Do we have a problem?” Neo, unable to respond, removed her blade from Blake’s neck and slowly backed away.

Ruby climbed out of the rubble of the container. She padded the dust off her skirt and walked over to Blake who had sat up. “Finally found you,” Ruby said, helping Blake to her feet. Ruby looked back at the container. “I really need to stop hitting people without Aura that hard.”

Blake looked down at the girl in the hood. “So this is what it's like to be on the receiving end of one of your rescues.” Blake said while picking up her sword, transforming it through a form-cycle to make sure it was still working.

Ruby pointed at Blake’s bow. “How could you hide that from us this whole time?!”

“There they are!” Neo had found her criminal associates and brought them back to the docks. They pulled out their guns and started shooting at Blake and Ruby while Neo slipped along the side to the container where Roman was still crumpled.

Blake and Ruby moved behind some concrete cover. Blake returned fire, chunks of concrete chipped around her from the gunshots as Ruby transformed Crescent Rose into its sniper form and joined Blake in shooting back.

“I didn’t tell you guys because I didn’t want this to happen,” Blake shouted.

“Oh what? An argument? Fighting a dozen dudes? Or you running off before you can explain yourself!” Ruby shouted back.

Neo reached the container and helped her partner to his feet. Miraculously able to stand, but bruised and obviously in pain, Roman dusted himself off and carefully put his bowler hat back on his head. They exchanged an exhausted look and split up to flank Blake and Ruby without getting shot by their own help.

Ruby signaled for Blake to move in on the goons while she would take on Neo and Roman. Blake nodded and lay down covering fire so Ruby could attack. As soon as Ruby was out of danger, Blake threw out a shadow to draw fire, got behind the enemy line and engaged them at close range.

Ruby’s weapon made contact with Neo’s umbrella. Neo blocked Ruby’s attacks one after another until she got into the rhythm of the Hunter-in-training’s blows. Neo parried one of Ruby’s swings, leaving her open for attack. Neo moved in close, hitting the side of her umbrella into Ruby’s stomach before spinning around and clubbing her in the back. Ruby staggered forward. Roman moved in and struck Ruby across the face, sending her flying backward. Before Ruby hit the ground, Roman fired a large Dust projectile at her. Ruby skid on her back and with a burst from her Semblance sprung up to her feet. She spun Crescent Rose and deflected Roman’s attack to a container behind her which exploded into an inferno.

Ruby faced the two of them. The fire illuminated Neo and Roman, and cast a shadow over Ruby’s face, her silver eyes glowing at her opponents.

“As much as I enjoy these meetups, Red,” Roman said. “I think I’m going to kill you now.”

Ruby chuckled. “You said that last time.” She charged in.

Roman flinched but managed to dodge her first swing, clashing his cane against her weapon with her second swing and started to exchange blows. “Well, there’s only so many things you can say to some stupid kid in a hood mucking up my plans!”

Neo leapt in to defend Roman, allowing him to back off and take a breath. Ruby and Neo hit their weapons together, pushing against each other in a clash until they broke apart and both took a few steps back. Neo drew her blade again and waited for Ruby to make the first move.

Ruby switched up her strategy, she zoomed to several different places to get Neo to look in as many directions as possible, making her not be able to guess where Ruby would actually charge in. At Ruby’s speed, she looked blurry and out of focus, but Ruby kept a watch on Neo’s eye movements. If Neo’s illusions were anything like Blake’s Semblance, eye movement was a tell on whether this was the real Neo or not. Neo’s eyes kept up with Ruby well enough, but not enough to convince Ruby that she was real. Ruby charged in, before reaching Neo, she turned, Neo now to her back, and swung Crescent Rose behind her, shattering the fake Neo and fully prepared for the real Neo’s attack.

Neo appeared and lunged in with her blade. Even though she saw through the plan, Ruby barely managed to block the stab between the gears of her weapon, barely stopping the point of Neo’s sword a foot away from Ruby’s stomach.

Ruby froze. Neo tried to pull out her sword, but it was jammed through Crescent Rose, the edge sticking out the other side towards Ruby. It was too close. Way too close. Almost as close as  _ he _ was. The blade was about the same size. Ruby could see it easily slip through her like carving butter. She couldn’t do anything. She couldn’t resist. She barely even saw it coming back then. The cold blade stinging as everything in her body seemed to stop functioning, leaving her helpless on the ground.

Neo gritted her teeth and pushed forward. She couldn’t free her blade without giving Ruby an opening, so a slow shattering it was. The edge of the sword got closer, scraping against Ruby’s Aura, the friction shot sparks of energy between the two fighters.

“Times are changing red,” Roman said, loading another shell into his cane. “The people who hired me are going to change the world, and I want to be on their good side.” He pointed his cane at Ruby.

Blake finished knocking out the last of the hired criminals and rushed Roman. She leaped up with her weapon in machete form and slashed down on his cane, cutting halfway through it and bending it to an inoperable shape. She kicked Roman who went sprawling onto the ground and started running to help Ruby.

Ruby snapped out of it. She pushed at Neo. Neo lost her footing and stumbled back a few steps, her sword ripped out of Crescent Rose with her, giving Ruby the time to turn her weapon into a gun. Ruby tried to change her weapon’s form, but it was stuck. The blade had done it’s damage to the gears, and it wasn’t leaving scythe mode. Neo recovered her footing and sprinted back at Ruby. Ruby looked up wide-eyed at Neo leaping at her. She wrapping her legs around Ruby’s neck and pulled the both of them to the ground. Neo recovered first and started running towards Roman.

Blake reached Ruby’s side as soon as Neo reached Roman’s. Roman stood up first and dusted himself off, again. “We’ll meet again, Red,” he said. “And next time you won’t get away so easily!”

Ruby and Blake took some deep breaths as Roman and Neo just stood still in the middle of the docks. Roman had an annoyed glare, and Neo had an insufferable smirk as they stood side-by-side without making any attempt to run.

Ruby climbed to her feet and rubbed her neck. “You wanna break it, or you want me to?” Ruby asked.

“Eh.” Blake absent mindedly shot at Roman and Neo, shattering their image and revealing that they were long gone.

Ruby shook Crescent Rose, but it was still stuck in its scythe form. She pulled the trigger and shook it harder but the gears only ground together, making a loud clacking noise as the motor tried and failed to move the weapon’s pieces.

“Are you okay?” Blake said.

“I’m fine,” Ruby said. She started hitting the side of her scythe. “God damn it!”

“You’re shaking.”

“It’s the gears, Blake!” Ruby gasped for air. Her breathing was out of control. She was trying to hold her weapon still, but the whole thing was shaking. She blinked to get rid of the tears building around her eyes.

Ruby quickly perked her head up. “Phew,” Ruby laughed. “Lost it there for a second.” She smiled at Blake.

Ruby pulled out her Scroll and called the cops just in case someone hadn’t at the point. Blake put away Gamble Shroud and watched Ruby anonymously explain that she'd come across a crime and some vigilante behavior. She put on a smile to hide what had just happened. Blake silently observed that Ruby wasn’t very good at it.

  
  


On the warehouse roof overlooking the crime scene, Ruby sat on the edge and watched the red and blue lights flashing on the docks. The police were cleaning up and investigating the scene while arresting all the criminals that Blake knocked unconscious during the fight. Crescent Rose was lying next to Ruby, still stuck open. Ruby didn’t have the tool that she needed to repair the gears, and until she could take it apart, it wasn’t going to fix itself.

Blake walked up to Ruby and sat down on the edge of the roof next to her. “I’m…” Blake started. She turned to Ruby. “Um… I’m not going to pretend I’m an expert on stuff like this. If I was, I’d… Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Ruby said. “Totally fine. My Aura was up. It wasn’t a problem.”

Blake looked down. “Not really what I was talking about.”

Ruby laughed. “Yeah, that was a little messed up wasn’t it?” She took in a deep breath; the cold night air filled her lungs. Ruby exhaled loudly. “Thanks for giving me a minute.”

“No problem,” Blake said. She watched Roman’s gang get put in the back of a police transport. “Do you need more time? I can--”

“No.” Ruby reached out and grabbed Blake’s sleeve. “You can stay. I mean... please.”

Blake nodded. “Okay,” she said with a small smile. She reached over and held her hand over Ruby’s.

After a minute, Ruby let go and sat up straight. “So, you’re a Faunus,” she said. Blake nodded. “But you’re so… no… oh boy.” There was a much less comfortable silence. “Why hide it?”

“I just don’t like drawing attention to myself,” Blake said.

“Why? Did you do something?” Ruby smirked.

“I was… I  _ used _ to be…”

Ruby realized that she had accidentally hit the nail on the head. “You don’t have to talk about it if it’s too personal.”

“No, I’m good,” Blake said. “I was in the White Fang.”

Ruby blinked. “Oh… oh… OH…” The identity hiding and social reclusiveness suddenly made a bit more sense with that piece of context. “Are you still… you know…”

“No,” Blake said. “I left.”

“Oh, good.” Another silence. “How did you get involved in that?”

Blake sighed. “Well, a White Fang member took me in when I was a kid. This was about ten years ago, so before Khan took over. In return for food and shelter, they asked if I wanted to help them with protests. So I did. Basically, I just held up signs and chanted what everyone else was chanting, but it was for a good cause, and they took care of me. Naturally, when the leadership changed, I was young, but I still helped out any way I could. By then they were like a family, you know. You can probably imagine the rest.”

“Yeah, probably,” Ruby said. For the past few years, Ruby had occasionally heard on the news about guerrilla attacks and bomb threats, sometimes more than threats, against companies and the Atlas government. Being in a group like that doesn’t sound like the best place to grow up, she thought. “So, of all things, why become a Hunter?”

“I did some stuff I’m not really proud of,” Blake said, “and, basically, I wanted to get on the right track. A lot of Faunus and humans die from Grimm attacks, and I wanted to be able to help.”

“So, like, redemption almost?”

“Well…” Blake thought about it. “Sure, that sounds nice. Making up for mistakes, at least.” Blake smiled and looked out over the ocean, the waves lapping against the docks and the ships. The shattered moon reflected in it like a dozen glowing islands. “Thank you for coming after me,” she said.

“What are leaders for, right?” Ruby said.

“You didn’t tell Weiss and Yang, did you?”

“Oh no,” Ruby said. “I hope Weiss lets me have her notes from class though. Oh, they’ve probably gotten worried by now. I kinda left right after you did and… oh boy.” They both groaned at the lecture Yang was going to put them through. “But, as team leader, I have to say, you can't hide this from your team anymore.” Blake looked over. “I mean, I’m honestly shocked I didn’t realize that you never took off your bow after all these months. We all thought the whole no locker room thing was because you were sensitive about your privacy and you were just really dedicated to your hairstyle. You need to come clean about this, for the team.”

“I don’t…” Blake paused. “Ruby, I was in the  _ White Fang _ . I don’t really know why I even told  _ you _ . Just look at who’s in our team. It’s not the best thing to tell people. For example, I’ve personally attacked the SDC, Ruby. Weiss isn’t going to trust me anymore if I tell her. How’s that for the team?”

Ruby nodded. “She not on good terms with the SDC right now either, so…” They laughed. “How about… then just tell them you’re a Faunus. That’s it.”

Blake raised an eyebrow. “You won’t tell them about---?”

“Of course not,” Ruby said. “I promise.” Ruby moved her hand over Blake’s and lightly held it there.

Blake looked down at their hands touching and then up again at Ruby’s grin. “Heh. Who’s supposed to be comforting who again?”

“I’m still miserable,” Ruby said, “so you still have work to do.

Blake laughed and sniffled a little. “Alright. I’ll tell them. But only them okay. Just the four of us will know.”

They stood up from the edge of the roof. It took Ruby a second to realize that she was still holding Blake’s hand. She blushed and quickly let go. “Ok, yeah anyway…”

Blake and Ruby went down the fire-escape. Ruby was holding Crescent Rose against her shoulder, occasionally it clanked against the wall next to them.

“We’ll have no issue at all sneaking back into Beacon like that,” Blake said.

“You say that, but I really don’t want to get arrested for having this thing off campus again,” Ruby said. “So let’s be stealthy.”

“Oh I can do that easy,” Blake said. “It’s you I’m not so sure about.”

“I can be sneaky!”

“Ok miss ‘I leave rose petals everywhere.’”

“Your entire Semblance is leaving things behind.”

“ _ I _ have a practical purpose. What about yours?”

Ruby held out Crescent Rose in one hand and held up her other in a dramatic pose. “Aesthetic.”

Blake laughed again.

Ruby grinned. She could feel a flutter in her chest. Suddenly she was really glad she was able to make Blake smile. Ruby thought about it. She was, like, much happier than usual when she made Yang and Weiss smile or even Blake usually. Like, really freaking happy that she made Blake laugh. It wasn’t even a good joke, so why was she so proud?

Ruby stopped in her tracks.

Blake turned. “You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m good.” She nervously smiled before quickly walking to catch up to Blake, occasionally stealing a glance at the girl beside her.

_ Oh no, _ Ruby thought.  _ I love her… Fuck! _


	10. Burgers and Dance Lessons

_“Blake came out to the team about being a Faunus around two weeks before the dance, and, yes, I kept her involvement with the White Fang a secret from Weiss and Yang. Just the ‘she’s a Faunus, surprise!’ thing was enough of a hurdle. Yang had some suspicions but was still a little hurt that her partner hid it from her. Weiss was a little awkward about it for a while too. A couple days and some team conversations later and we got through it pretty well all things considered._

_“Me? Well instead of wrestling with feelings of whether I could trust her or not, I was a little distracted by how gay I was. Not relevant? Ok…”_

  


Neo walked down the underground rickety metal staircase. She held a paper bag from a burger joint just inside the walls: Two cheeseburgers and a bunch of fries. An effect like folding glass rolled back around her figure as she turned off her Aura; her appearance shifted from black twin-tails and green eyes to her natural multicolor swirl. Her outfit also changed back into her white jacket, corset, and high-heeled boots. Just the way she liked it.

Roman’s voice echoed between the walls of the cavern below her. The new guys they hired were, to say the least, not the best they’d worked with. “We needed that wall down ten minutes ago, people. Let’s go!” Roman screamed. The workers scrambled a little faster to finish hooking the metal cords into the last support column. Two days ago, they’d finally found the sealed entrance to the underground train tunnel. Vale’s city workers closed it off nineteen years back, and from how long it was taking to reopen it, they’d done a _very_ good job. Roman impatiently tapped his cane against the ground; naturally, a good distance away from the work. The motor on the pulley activated and ripped the support column free of the wall; it crashed down as concrete and metal groaned and split against the ground, revealing their objective. “Now get all this out of here!” Roman waved with his hand as the workers started to clear the new rubble.

Mountain Glenn had been abandoned for a long time. Only hollow concrete buildings remained, crumbling into themselves. Vale put a lot of money into the expansion back in the day, before it failed. For now, it sat to the south of the Kingdom as a constant reminder of the power Grimm had over the humans of Remnant.

But since Vale wasn’t using it, Neo and Roman moved right in. "Waste not, want not," as they say. Even the Grimm who invaded the city had lost most of their interest in the ghost town. No people around so why would they bother. That being said, Roman did have some pretty good hired help with Hunter skills keeping an eye out just in case. They and the workers were under the impression that they were opening a smuggling route, and Neo and Roman intended to keep it that way.

Neo reached the bottom of the metal stairs and started walking over to Roman. As husks of metropolises went, Neo’d seen worse. Not really, but it wasn’t that bad. She and Roman had a pretty nice RV sitting at the back of the cave that almost made them forget they were outside the comfort of the tall, heavily armed walls of the Kingdoms. And the small maintenance tunnel Neo used to get in and out of Vale made a burger joint and a corner store just a walk away, so she made it work.

“And keep the equipment away from the Dust!” Roman yelled. “God. What do I pay you for? Absolutely incompetent.”

Neo walked up to her partner and held up the bag.

“Oh, sweet. Lunch!” Roman said. He pointed at the bag and then started moving his hands. _“They got pickles?”_ he signed.

_“Of course,”_ she signed back.

_“Nice.”_ He took the bag and looked inside.

A truck pulled up at the entrance of the cavern. It shut off its engine; a big Faunus guy got out and stood in front of the hood. He was dressed in casual clothes, but Neo recognized his type anywhere. He was trained, definitely military, and that meant...

“Oh boy,” Roman grumbled. He closed the bag.

Neo and Roman walked into their RV/office. A tall red-haired Faunus wearing a Grimm mask and a black jacket with a red symbol down the shoulder was standing behind Roman’s desk. He looked up from the plans for the tunnel project as the two thieves entered.

Roman closed the door behind him; Neo plopped herself down sideways in a chair, laying her back against one of the armrests and let her legs over the other end.

“I hear you’ve been having trouble,” Adam said coldly.

“Just some bad luck with some local kids,” Roman said. “So what’s wrong this time?”

“Checking in to make sure you two are on schedule,” Adam said. He walked around the desk and stood face-to-face with Roman.

_"We’ve been ahead of schedule since the beginning, pretty boy,”_ Neo signed. She waited for him to ask Roman what she said.

Adam turned and looked at her. He held eye contact with her a moment before he started to move his hands. _“That doesn’t mean anything if you two are sloppy,”_ he signed.

Neo rolled her eyes. _Showoff._

“Listen, Mr. Taurus,” Roman said, “you do your part, whatever that is, and we’ll do ours. Simple.”

“My part is for a cause that is shifting the tide of this war,” Adam’s voice had a low growl to it, “and leading to a future where Faunus can--”

Neo yawned.

Adam stopped talking and looked at her again coldly.

She smacked her lips and raised an eyebrow at him.

“As grand as your ideals are,” Roman started, “and as much as I know how important getting in Khan’s good graces is to you,” Adam frowned, “some of us have a job to do, so if you don’t want me falling behind, don’t waste my time. Any more complaints, you take it up with The Bandit.”

Adam looked Roman up and down. “I really don’t understand why she teamed me up with you two.”

Neo looked at Roman. In any other situation, he would say something like: “Human reliability.” She hoped he wouldn’t because she wanted them to get paid.

Roman smirked. “Because she wanted the job done right,” he said. “Trust me.”

_Close enough,_ Neo thought.

Adam looked at the well-dressed pair of misfits one last time. A little worry crept into his voice when he said, “Let’s hope you’re right.”

He left the RV and Roman leaned against the desk. They heard the truck drive away and Roman sighed in relief before opening the burger bag.

Neo hopped onto the desk next to him. He handed her one of the burgers. She took it, unwrapped her lunch, and took a huge bite. The flavor was delightful. She chewed loudly and swallowed.

“Fry?” Roman pulled one out of the bag and held it out to her.

Neo took it, signed thanks, and crammed it in her mouth. They munched down on their burgers, their chomping being the only sound in the RV. Roman was right as always to make sure they put pickles on these, Neo thought as she wiped some sauce from the corner of her mouth and licked her fingers.

They looked forward with blank faces and together took another big bite out of their burgers and munched.

 

* * *

 

There is a way to lounge around that is only possible on a Thursday afternoon. A way to mindlessly distract from the inevitable fact that there was still an entire school day left between you and the weekend. Ruby was lying in her top bunk looking at her Scroll trying to emulate it. Blake was on her bed across from her reading a book, and Yang was at the desk writing an essay. Weiss, however, was pacing around the room.

“Ruby, I don’t think you understand how important it is that you look presentable at tomorrow’s event,” Weiss said.

Ruby looked up from her memes. “It’s a school dance, Weiss,” Ruby said. She found it bizarre that she was in a reality where she wasn’t the one freaking out about an upcoming social event.

Weiss turned to Yang. “She’s your sister,” she said. “Take care of her.”

Yang shrugged.

Weiss raised her arms in frustration and turned to her last roommate. “Blake, do you even have a dress?”

Blake glanced over her book at Yang, and mentally screamed: “Please do not involve me in this.”

“I helped her set it all up,” Yang said, coming to her rescue. “I’m a good partner after all. She even agreed to be my first dance.”

Ruby peaked over the edge of her bunk. _I want to dance with Blake too!_ she thought. The upcoming dance wasn’t helping Ruby’s latest trend of sneaking sideways glances at her teammate when they were in the dorms, or in class, or out on Grimm hunts. Not that she could ever do anything about it. Now that she was aware of her feelings towards Blake, her self-consciousness issues had been taken to a whole new level.

“Did you figure out all your guys' hair?” Weiss asked, still on the subject of everyone’s presentation for the event. “Is Blake going to wear it down or put it up? Is she going with a bow or… oh yeah.”

Weiss, Yang, and Ruby all slowly looked at Blake. She didn’t look up from her book.

Weiss cleared her throat. “Never mind,” she said. “The bow will have to do.”

“Anyway!” Ruby put down her Scroll. “Did anyone end up getting asked to go with anyone…?

“Turned him down,” Yang said.

Blake looked over her book again and said, “If I was going with someone, I would ask them, not the other way around.”

_Ask me!!!!_ Ruby mentally screamed. Someone with a telepathic Semblance would’ve had a hard time living near this dorm.

A knock on the dorm’s open door caused the entire team to turn to the front of the room. A young Atlas Military officer with white hair was standing in the doorway, one hand by the door and the other behind her back. She had impeccable posture and a curved sword sheathed at her waist.

“Shit! The cops found us!” Ruby and Yang yelled. Blake jumped to her feet as soon as she recognized the uniform, and Weiss stood in the middle of the room dumbstruck.

The officer cleared her throat and asked, “May I enter?”

“Winter?” Weiss said. “Uh, yeah, oh my god, please.”

Ruby, Blake and Yang all exchanged confused glances at each other as the officer slowly walked into the room.

“Um, guys, this is Winter. My sister. Winter, this is my team.” She pointed out and introduced Blake and Yang, who stood up as Ruby climbed down from her bed, the three of them standing at a sort of attention. “And my partner and team leader, Ruby Rose.”

Winter nodded at each member of her sister’s team and walked up to Weiss. She looked down at her sister. “How long has it been?”

“About two years,” Weiss said.

Winter started to say something but stopped. She reached out for a second as if she was going to put her hand on Weiss’s shoulder. “I…” Winter said. After a pause, Winter quickly leaned down and hugged Weiss. Weiss squeaked in surprise but wrapped her arms around her big sister. “It’s good to see you,” Winter said.

Weiss nodded.

Both sisters stopped hugging and awkwardly stood up straight. They both cleared their throats and adjusted their uniforms to remain professional while teammates were around and such.

“So, this is Ruby Rose?” Winter said, walking up to Ruby and looking her over. “In Weiss’s communications over the past month I’ve heard many good things.” Winter shook Ruby’s hand.

“Really?” Ruby said.

Weiss blushed.

Winter moved over to Weiss’s other teammates. She shook Blake’s hand and also looked her up and down. This time her stare was more inquisitive than it was with Ruby. She moved on to Yang, still lingering a look at Blake with something that looked like recognition before turning her attention towards Yang. Blake slinked to the back of the room, obviously uncomfortable in the presence of an Atlas officer.

As she got her own handshake, Yang said, “Weiss never told us that she had a sister who looked so good in uniform.” She leaned down and kissed Winter’s hand.

Weiss’s eyes widened. “Nope! Nooooooooo.”

“Okay, Yang,” Ruby said. “Guys, let’s give them a minute.”Ruby tried to apologize with her expression to Weiss as she started pushing Yang out of the room with Blake following closely behind. Yang looked back to Winter and motioned: “Call me.”

Ruby and Yang walked down the dorm hallway with Blake at their side. Campus life on a weeknight wasn’t the most exciting. The other students in the dorm were in their rooms getting some studying in before dinner so they could finish their assignments that were due by the end of the week. The only student movement in the dorm other than the three members of RWBY was from students heading to an early dinner at the cafeteria hall or off campus at some nearby restaurant, which was a popular option among second and third years.

Yang smirked. “Well, what do you know. Not every day you get to see an adorable reunion.”

“One Schnee is enough for me,” Blake said.

“You don’t have any siblings, so you don’t get it,” Yang said. “Wait, do you?”

“Having spent the last few months living with three people who are very proud of their sisters, even I couldn’t hide that,” Blake said.

“Eh, but you’re sneaky,” Yang said.

Ruby flinched and looked at Blake, hoping it wouldn’t offend too much. But Blake smirked.

“Well, they’re not the only pair of sisters who probably need a minute. I’ll be in the library catching up on some reading.”

“See ya,” Ruby and Yang said as Blake headed off.

After they decided to get dinner at the Vacuo place about two blocks outside of campus, they walked silently through the dorm. “Two years,” Yang said. “I mean, they’ve been sending messages to each other for the past month since Weiss escaped, but still…”

“Yeah,” Ruby said. “You’re stuck with me.”

“And I wouldn’t trade you for any leader,” Yang said. “Maybe Pyrrha.”

“Oh I’d trade you for Pyrrha in a heartbeat,” Ruby said.

They exited the dorm and Yang got quiet. She slowed her pace and looked up at the CCTS tower. “So… how you doing?” she asked quietly.

“Good,” Ruby said. She hadn’t had a serious panic attack since that night with Blake at the docks, but Yang didn’t need to know Ruby had any at all.

“You’re back up to speed,” Yang said. “Like it never happened.”

Ruby looked over at Yang. They hadn’t talked about it since Ruby got out of the hospital. And then with everything going on with Weiss, and now with Blake, it never seemed to come up again. Ruby didn’t want to dump that on Yang anyway. But even with all that, Ruby hadn’t realized just how much getting hurt must have messed with Yang. She wondered whether she was an idiot or maybe Yang was just really good at playing the role of boosting team morale.

Yang chuckled. “Man, we have a lot of weird stuff going on don’t we.”

Ruby laughed. “Yeah.”

_We’re a crazy bunch,_ Ruby thought. She knew Beacon would be wild, but this… She grew silent.

“It’s not your fault you know,” Ruby said.

“Yeah, I know,” Yang said.

“I kicked his ass. It’s over,” Ruby said.

Yang put her hands in her jacket pockets and looked down at the sidewalk.

“I can take care of myself, Yang. You don’t have to drop kick some kid just because he shoved me anymore.”

“We’re not at the playground anymore either, Ruby,” Yang said. “And that was a lot worse than a shove.” Yang sighed very loudly. “It’s not what I want to… it’s… After all this time I still can’t… You’re right. God, you’re right.”

“I thought I was supposed to be the one blaming myself for every mistake,” Ruby said.

“You may be my team leader, but I’m still your big sister,” Yang said. She put her hand on Ruby’s head and messed up her hair. “But if I ever see that secretary guy again I’ll kill ’im.”

“Go for it,” Ruby said. “But I think Weiss might want a crack at him before you do.”

They both laughed and walked side-by-side. As sisters who were both interested in Hunters, they'd trained together ever since they were kids. Even when Yang started going to Signal two years before Ruby, she'd show her little sister everything she learned at school. And Ruby sometimes caught on even faster than Yang. Their friends thought it was strange how well they got along considering how different they were. Sure, they were a weird pair, but somehow they found a way to even each other out.

Now that Ruby thought about it, Yang had a talent for drawing out the good in people. For instance, Yang and Blake were also very different types of people, but they instantly got along as partners and friends, compared to Ruby and Weiss who went through a couple rough patches there at the beginning of the semester. It was something that Ruby couldn't do. _Not that Blake needed it much,_ Ruby thought. _She’s just cool._

Ruby sighed. Even with Blake being the target of Ruby’s affections, she still didn’t know much about her, minus the whole ‘used to be a terrorist’ thing, but Yang probably knew things that mattered in getting to know someone. She probably knew a lot of things actually.

“Heeeey, Yang?” Ruby said. “You hang out with Blake a lot, right?”

“Yeah,” Yang said. “What about it?”

“What does she like to… do?”

“Read.”

“But like…” Ruby tried to motion with her hands but suddenly realized she had no plan. “...what?”

“What does she like to read?” Yang tilted her head.

“No, I…” Ruby sighed. “Never mind.”

 

* * *

 

The elevator chime rang as the doors opened. General James Ironwood stepped out of the lift and into Ozpin’s office. Oz had redecorated since he was here last. Making his office in the midst of the tower's gears was already too extravagant for the general’s tastes, not that he cared, but he was sure that Ozpin didn’t need a new desk and chair to fit the motif.

Ozpin looked up from behind his desk. “It’s been too long, James,” he said. Ozpin stood up and walked around to Ironwood where they exchanged a friendly handshake. “What brings you to Vale?” he motioned for Ironwood to take a seat and sat back down behind his desk.

“Just dropping in for next week’s Victory Day,” Ironwood said, leaning back into the chair.

Ozpin chuckled. “As if your schedule would let you come all the way down here for a holiday,” he said. His face grew serious. “Why are you really here?”

Ironwood sighed. Never could get one past Ozpin. “We’ve received intelligence that a terrorist attack is probable in Vale within the next few months.”

“Is that why you’ve brought a carrier-class warship into my Kingdom?” Ozpin said. “Vale is protected by _me_ , James. Not the Atlas Military.”

“Your protection is just cleanup, Ozpin,” Ironwood said. “Hunters could be more than just additional forces when Kingdom security can’t handle some Grimm. But we’ve had this argument before…”

Ozpin smiled. “You have a limited perspective of what my Hunters do for Vale. For all the Kingdoms in fact.”

“I am aware of your personal operations,” Ironwood said. “But I do have my own.” He pulled out a Scroll and handed it over to Ozpin. “That intelligence was gathered personally by my top specialist.”

Ozpin took it. “Which specialist?”

“Schnee,” Ironwood said as Ozpin skimmed through the data and set it to the side. “Which remind me. You’ve had some awfully public spats with the SDC recently haven’t you?”

“If that’s what you call putting in measures to make sure that no more attempts are made to steal sensitive information from this academy, then yes, I most certainly have.”

“You do realize what position this puts me in, right?” Ironwood said.

“Jacques is an Atlas citizen and a close business partner with _your_ military,” Ozpin said. “He needs to be reined in.”

Ironwood sighed. “Fine. I’ll contact the rest of the council to assign an investigator on your allegations.”

Ozpin raised an eyebrow. “It’s a start.”

“But this clearly isn’t just about information or espionage,” Ironwood said. “You’ve been harboring Weiss Schnee. There’s a warrant on her if she steps back into Atlas territory. Outside I can’t do anything of course.”

Ozpin stared back at Ironwood silently.

“What is your interest in Weiss?” Ironwood asked.

“I’m merely protecting a student,” Ozpin said.

“More than typical for you,” Ironwood said. “You probably know, but her partner will also be arrested if she steps foot in Atlas again.”

He was met with nothing but a stare from Ozpin. It didn’t give him anything.

“I see you’ve started to recruit them young. Did you send her to fetch Miss Schnee?” Ironwood asked.

“I didn’t need to,” Ozpin said. A smile spread across his face as he turned to look out the window.

Ironwood lowered his head. “Reminds me a Summer,” he said. Ozpin’s reflection in the window stopped smiling, hinting at the same recollection. It would explain another reason he wanted to talk to Ozpin, not that he would get an answer. “Does her visit to the hospital almost two months ago have anything to do with the body of a high ranking SDC employee we pulled out of the Atlas bay?”

Ozpin turned back towards Ironwood. “Enjoy your stay in Vale, General,” he said as he stood up. “You’re free to stay here at the school.”

“My men and I will be staying aboard our ship,” Ironwood said while standing up as well, “but thank you for the invitation.”

The general turned and walked back through the office towards the elevator. Halfway, he stopped and turned back to his friend. "So you don't even care what happens to Weiss," Ironwood realized. "It's who cares for her that you're more concerned about."

He grinned at Ozpin’s deadpan face. Him not giving anything away gave it all away. Ironwood entered the elevator and returned to the school below him.

 

* * *

 

“Hey, Blake! Would you like to dance? Hey, we should dance. Wouldn’t want to just stand around. We should dance!”

Ruby paced around the fountain outside of the dance hall near the base of the CCTS tower, brainstorming ideas about how to bring up the idea of dancing with Blake. After an early dinner with Yang, she’d gone on a walk by herself and just ended up at the location of tomorrow night’s dance. All the decorations were up, Ruby could see them through the window when she walked by. The dance was completely prepared by the students, mostly by a group of second-years but even Yang helped out with some of the decorations and music choices. Ruby hadn’t given the dance a second thought until she became all too obsessed with her feelings towards Blake.

Whenever she went down the rabbit hole of thinking about asking Blake to dance, she couldn’t help but think about her last relationship. She’d started dating a girl in her class at Signal. It was going great, but out of nowhere, she broke it off, and not in an ‘I had a good time, I’ll see you later’ kind of way. The day after a nice date, she just turned around out of nowhere and kicked Ruby to the curb. Not literally, but it felt like it. Ruby knew she must have done something wrong. You don’t just act like that for no reason. She couldn’t help but be scared that it would happen again, but she tried not to dwell on it. Blake was different.

“Hey,” Ruby said. “How’s it goin good look’n? How about a little swirl around the dance floor. Ruby stopped pacing and slapped her palm against her forehead. “God, I’m pathetic…”

“You look like you’re in real deep there,” a voice said.

Ruby jumped. She turned to her left. Nora and Ren were sitting on the edge of the fountain.

Nora grinned and folded her arms. “So,” she said, “excited for the dance?”

“Maybe,” Ruby said. She also folded her arms and turned, facing her body away from her two friends but keeping them in sight. “What’s it to you?”

“Who do you want to dance with?” Nora asked. She stood up, Ren following behind her.

“None of your business,” Ruby said.

“I’m pretty sure you named one of your teammates?” Nora said.

Ruby flinched proportionally with the width of Nora’s smile.

“Leave her alone, Nora,” Ren finally spoke up. “This isn’t something we should be meddling in.”

“Alright,” Nora raised her hands in defeat. She and Ren started walking away, but Nora looked back at Ruby with an evil grin. “So… what do you know about dancing?”

Ruby shrugged. “Nothing, I guess.”

Ren stopped dead in his tracks. He turned slowly and stared at Ruby. As if there was an error in the world that he must correct.

“Well then.” Nora skipped around Ruby and pushed her towards Ren. Before Ruby knew it, they were in closed position, with Ren leading with a deadpan expression and Ruby flabbergasted. “Ren is going to lead you through a simple waltz.”

_Are they crazy?!_ Ruby thought.

“Wait,” Ren said.

_Oh, thank god,_ Ruby thought. _Someone’s finally come to their senses._

“You would be leading,” he said. Ren switched Ruby into the leading position.

Ruby screamed in her closed mouth.

Nora started clapping a beat. “You _will_ learn the art of the dance,” she said. Ren and Ruby began a simple four-step waltz. Much to Nora’s criticism, Ruby kept looking at her feet but still managed to wobble her way across the cobblestone. She could tell whenever she looked up at Nora that she was thinking, _My god, Ren, we must help this child._

“One, two, three, turn, two, three, twist, two, three,” Nora said. “Improvise Ruby! Change it up a little, don’t just walk in a square. Feel the dance floor. Feel the music!”

“What music?”

“Feel it! Remember, you’re dancing to have a good time and to make sure your partner is having fun. Is Ren having fun, Ruby?”

“I don’t know!”

“Then you’re doing something wrong! It’s right there on his face! Be confident with where you lead him. You’re the leader. You’re in charge. Be suave! Imagine the music. It’s soft and sensual. Feel it, Ruby!”

_Help me!!!_


	11. A Waltz with You

Almost all the students had arrived at the dance hall under the CCTS when Ruby and Yang finally left their dorm. The sisters were running about ten minutes behind their partners, but they were finally all dressed up and ready to go. Yang was wearing a sleeveless white dress, and Ruby was wearing a red dress with black trimming. Ruby, also, just happened to be silently freaking out.

“Stop worrying,” Yang said. “We’re beautiful.”

“Why do I keep letting you drag me to these things?” Ruby asked.

“Because I’m a good role model,” Yang said. “You also need to mingle more.”

Ruby sighed and quickly followed close behind.

As they approached the dance hall, the sound of soft music and student chatter leaked out towards them. The party lights shone through the windows and open doors of the building like a lantern lighting up the front of the academy in the soft orange glow. Ruby spotted Weiss and Blake waiting for them by the entrance. Weiss was wearing a similar dress as Yang’s, but with some lavender mixed in. Blake was wearing a stunning black dress with a ribbon going around her waist matching the bow hiding her Faunus ears. Ruby had to clench her jaw shut to keep it from dropping at the sight of her. The warm glow from the dance behind Blake cast a backlight around the edges of her hair and body, hiding her face in shadow. The darkness of her figure, her dress and midnight hair caused her amber eyes to shine in contrast, like twin fires in a night sky. The party, Weiss, the building, all seemed to fall out of focus when Blake turned to look at Ruby.

Ruby failed to keep her mouth shut and quietly gasped.

Weiss and Blake both cleared their throats when they saw Ruby and adjusted their dresses and hair, a little flustered at the sight of their leader.

“Wow,” Blake said looking at Ruby. “You… You both look really great.”

“Squad,” Yang said, putting a hand on her hip and posing.

“You look really good too,” Ruby said with a dumb grin on her face. “I mean, it’s a really nice dress. Love it.”

_Kill me,_ Ruby pleaded to the universe.

“Thank you,” Blake smiled, and Ruby thanked every possible god that it was dark outside because she could feel her face burning the same shade as her dress.

“Come on, guys,” Yang said, pushing her three teammates into the hall. They all tripped through the entrance and collected themselves before looking up at the party, Yang standing proudly behind them. The dance hall was packed with students. The dance was traditionally done every year a week before Victory Day. On the dancefloor at the center of the room, there were a few dozen students in spiffy dresses and suits, dancing with ability ranging from: “I have no idea what I’m doing here” to “I was born dancing.” The rest of the students stood around the edges talking to each other, goofing around, or watching the dancers

None of them could go too crazy though because of the eyes of a few chaperones who were scattered at the edges of the room. Among them, Oobleck and Port were talking among themselves more than keeping an eye on the youngsters, but Goodwitch had a stern eye over all the “fun.”

The upbeat music ended as the DJ prepared the next song for the students. Between the members of Team RWBY facing the scene, Yang seemed to be the only one who looked like she was actually looking forward to the evening. Ruby was fidgeting with her dress, Blake hated crowds and couldn’t hide it to save her life, and considering all the classy social events Weiss had attended, Weiss was regretting even stressing about this for a second. But Yang was here to have a good time, and three antisocial teammates weren't going to get in her way.

A slow but catchy jazz song started playing over the speakers. The piano accompaniment and strings filled the room with a beat that would make even Professor Amber want to dance. Ruby was sure that wasn't true, but the music was catchy.

Yang held out her arm for Blake. “I believe I was promised the first dance.”

Blake smiled and rolled her eyes. She put her arm around Yang’s as they walked towards the dance floor.

Yang turned back to Ruby and mouthed, “Mingle.”

Ruby glared at her sister and mouthed some obscenities back.

Yang and Blake slowly spun and swayed around the dance floor, leaving Ruby and Weiss next to the entrance. Ruby wrung her hands and Weiss sighed, not really knowing what to do with themselves.

Ruby cleared her throat. “You don’t wanna…?”

“No,” Weiss said.

“Okay…”

Before the silence between them got unbearable, Team JNPR walked through the doorway. Jaune had his hands in his suit jacket pockets and was leading the way next to Pyrrha, with Nora and Ren arm-in-arm behind them.

“Hey guys,” Jaune said once he saw Ruby and Weiss. “How’s it going?”

“Hi,” Ruby said, a little distracted by one of the new arrivals.

“Fine,” Weiss said to Jaune before she happened to see who Ruby was looking at.

Pyrrha was drop dead gorgeous. Her red dress was radiant in the lights of the party; her gold earrings and headpiece gave her an air of nobility that broadcasted--its wearer completely unaware--that Pyrrha Nikos was on a different level. It was almost too much for Ruby to handle. Ruby wiped some sweat off her forehead as Weiss cleared her throat, seemingly under a similar effect.

Pyrrha looked over the dance with a contagious grin. Every couple on the dance floor brought a sparkle to her eye. “I never made it to any of the dances at Sanctum,” Pyrrha said. “This is amazing!”

“Where’s Yang and Blake?” Jaune asked Ruby.

“Oh, they’re dancing,” Ruby said.

Pyrrha leaned to the side to see the pair. Ruby joined her and tried to lift her head over the other students. It wasn't hard to spot her sister and teammate. They danced as naturally as they fought together in combat, Ruby realized with a pang of jealousy. Blake was actually laughing at something Yang said. In public. Ruby felt that fluttering feeling in her chest again and committed all her mental energy into beating it back down.

“So,” Nora said, leaning against the wall next to Ruby, “excited for our rematch next week?”

Weiss chuckled. “Ready to be beaten again?”

“We won’t lose to you guys a second time,” Ren said.

Ruby and Weiss smirked in skepticism.

“Competitive spirit aside,” Pyrrha said, joining the conversation, “some of the new team compositions that Jaune has come up with are pretty spectacular.” She looked at Ruby. “Especially now that we know to keep them secret after Ruby here revealed how devious she really is.”

Ruby grinned and shrugged.

“Oh shush,” Jaune said to Pyrrha. “They’re not that smart.”

“Don’t say that about your strategies,” Pyrrha said.

“You taught me all that stuff. You’re the one who’s keeping us working so well together.”

“Don't undersell yourself. You’re able to use all four of our talents in a way that’s inspired.”

“Only because I have fantastic teammates.”

“Who all have a fantastic leader!”

Ruby and Weiss groaned at their exchange. _We get it,_ Ruby thought. _You’re infatuated with each other. Don’t rub it in._

A camera flash interrupted the sappiness. CFVY had arrived, which was the only way to describe their entrance considering their snazzy team leader. The four Hunters-in-training were in matching black suits and white dress shirts. Fox and Yatsuhashi posed in the back with Velvet taking photos to the side and Coco at the front, still wearing her shades, and somehow pulling it off.

“Long time no see Ruby; Weiss,” Coco said. Impossibly, she and her crew looked like they were crashing the party they were invited to.

Velvet snapped pictures in all directions. She turned towards Ruby and Weiss and snapped a photo.

“Sorry,” Velvet said. “You want a copy later?”

“Sure,” Weiss said.

“Cool. Your dress is great,” Velvet said.

“Oh, thank you. Your suit is too.”

“Thanks,” Velvet said before she gasped at a sudden realization. “The garden outside! I need a photo of you there!”

“Velvet…” Coco kindly warned.

“I mean,” Velvet’s ears fell to the sides of her head, “if that’s okay?”

“Um… sure,” Weiss said. She turned to Ruby. “You okay if I…?”

“Oh yeah, sure, go for it,” Ruby said.

“Awesome!” Velvet said. She and Weiss headed back out of the dance hall while mentioning a new lens and lighting that she got for night time shots or something, Ruby didn’t follow what she was saying very well before they were out of sight.

“Bye,” Ruby said quietly with no one to hear.

The rest of CFVY was talking to Pyrrha as Ruby turned to look at Blake and Yang dancing again. The song had ended. Yang bowed to her partner, and Blake bowed back (much more sarcastically though). They headed off the floor together on the other side of the room.

Nora leaned in close next to Ruby and whispered very slowly an inch away from Ruby’s ear, “ _Strike_ while the evening is young.”

“Ahhh!”

  


Ruby meandered to the side of the room for after she left CFVY and JNPR by the entrance. She hated parties. For her, it was just wandering around a room alone until she found the snacks, and then wandering around some more because she didn't want to be the kid who just sulks behind the mini cheesecakes. She leaned her back against a wall and sighed. She’d barely talked to anyone and she was already exhausted by all this.

“Miss Rose, isn’t it?”

Ruby turned to her right. General Ironwood, the headmaster of Atlas’s academy, was leaning against the wall next to her.

“Oh! Yes!” Ruby yelped. “Ehem. Yes. I’m Ruby… Rose.”

Ironwood smiled. “It’s nice to finally meet you,” he said. He extended his hand and shook Ruby’s. “I’ve heard of your many talents. Very impressive, especially for someone your age.”

Ruby smiled shyly. “Thank you, sir.”

He nodded. “I’m glad you pursued a career in Grimm hunting. I worked with your mother on several occasions.”

“Oh, really?” Ruby said.

“Summer was an amazing Hunter,” Ironwood said. “She would be very proud.”

“Thank you,” Ruby said.

They looked back at the party in silence. The dancers were in a slow waltz now, which was very popular among the couples. “Where is the rest of your team?” Ironwood asked.

“Oh, Yang and Blake went off together somewhere, and Weiss is off with Velvet taking photos or something. I’m not sure really.”

A new voice to Ruby’s side said, “I hope you have a better time keeping track of your teammates in the field, Miss Rose.” Ozpin walked up to the two of them while leaning on his cane.

Ruby bowed. “Hello, professor.”

“I see you made it out to the celebration after all,” Ozpin said to Ironwood.

“Only to helplessly be jealous of the youth, Oz,” Ironwood said, speaking to Ozpin in a familiar tone that Ruby wasn’t really equipped to handle.

Ironwood turned to Ruby as she leaned back against the wall between the two of them. “While your headmaster and I disagree on a lot of ways to run a school, I’ll certainly say that your social events are more uplifting than anything I’ve attended at our Atlas academy.”

Ozpin laughed. “We finally agree on something my friend.”

“You even have a celebrity,” Ironwood said, pointing out Pyrrha across the dance hall.

“She’s been an exceptional student,” Ozpin said.

Ironwood feigned a whisper to Ruby. “He has better parties. He snags Nikos. What can’t he do, eh Ruby?”

Ruby laughed.

“Well, with all that said, I will return to my ship for the evening,” Ironwood said. “Leave the fun to the young. Too many chaperones as is.”

He said his goodbye to Ozpin then turned back to Ruby. “You know what, I’ve been testing out a new automated Paladin mech model. I’ve been wanting to test how good it is against Hunters. If you’re interested, I could arrange you trying to crack it open.”

“Thank you?” Ruby said.

The general nodded and made his way to the exit.

Ozpin leaned against the wall with Ruby. “How’s school?” he asked.

“Pretty good,” Ruby said, laughing nervously.

“I’m hoping that it’s not boring you.”

“What?!” Ruby said. “No!”

“It’s just that I’ve been receiving some ‘concerns’ from our local law enforcement that some of my students have been playing vigilante again.”

Ozpin grinned, and Ruby couldn’t help but smirk herself.

“You’ll make an excellent Hunter, Miss Rose.”

“Thank you, sir,” Ruby said.

Ruby looked around the room again. Goodwitch was reprimanding Port and Oobleck for slacking off, while Professor Peach found those cheesecakes Ruby was thinking about earlier. Professor Amber was nowhere to be seen. Ruby wasn’t sure that even Ozpin could force Amber to go to a dance with a bunch of teens, so she wasn’t surprised. She was much younger than all the other professors so it probably wasn’t too long ago that Amber was at a dance like this.

“If you don’t mind me asking, sir,” Ruby said. “Why are you starting to recruit younger people?”

“What do you mean?” Ozpin said.

“Well, I’m fifteen, and professor Amber is the youngest professor at… any of the Academies, I think ever? I mean… you started teaching pretty young too, but she…”

“Ah, yes,” Ozpin said. “Both of you are special cases, I assure you, but not the norm.”

“Don’t get me wrong,” Ruby said, “she’s good… Definitely at getting her students to improve that is.” _Through intimidation._

Ozpin laughed. “I have reminded her to hold back on her teaching methods quite often.”

“Does she working here have to do with…” Ruby didn’t really want to bring up the facial scar. There had been rumors about why she retired and how she was injured mixed in with who knows how many nasty stories about her that some annoyed students she gave failing grades to passed around. But students still couldn’t help but speculate about what was right in front of them. Luckily, Ozpin seemed to pick up on what Ruby was saying anyway.

“Amber was an extremely talented young Hunter. Like you, she started attending an Academy younger than usual and was incredible in her duty. But, no matter how much knowledge and experience we can provide for students, sometimes none of us can be prepared for what we have to face as Hunters. Only a little over a year after getting her license, she was tracking down an ex-Hunter who was using those very skills to commit crimes against the Kingdoms. Amber barely survived.”

Ruby lowered her head. No wonder she detested the sight of her own students.. It must be a constant reminder to train them for a career she’d never have.

“Once she recovered, I recruited her to teach here so that her skills wouldn’t go to waste. As Hunters, we’ve sacrificed many things to protect humanity.” Ruby glanced down at Ozpin's cane while he spoke. “However, the world needs people like us to face that possibility. From the beginning, Beacon has stressed team-based education. Teams are like the CCTS. If one tower goes down, the network they create goes down. As the leader, you have to protect that balance, and that is why you have to be stronger. It’s an incredible responsibility and an important burden.”

“Yes sir,” Ruby said.

Ozpin sighed and shook his head. “And now I’m just spoiling your evening.”

“Oh not at all,” Ruby said.

“Yes I am,” Ozpin said. “James was right. Too many damn old men around. Enjoy your evening, Miss Rose.”

She thanked Ozpin as he slowly walked away with the assistance of his cane. Ruby scanned the room… again. She was pretty close to the punch bowl, and she could see Jaune by himself standing next to it sipping from a plastic cup.

Ruby walked up to Jaune, pulled her own plastic cup from the stack, poured some punch and took a sip.

Jaune took another sip.

Ruby took another sip.

“Good punch,” Jaune said.

"Yeup,” Ruby said. The corner by the punch bowl was surprisingly isolated considering how crowded the room was. Ruby looked at the rest of her school having a blast, and then looked over at Jaune. _We’re helpless,_ she thought. Ruby held out her plastic glass. “To the socially awkward.”

“I’ll drink to that,” Jaune said. They clinked the plastic cups together, making no satisfying noise whatsoever, and chugged what was left down their throats. They immediately refilled and went back to sipping in the general direction of the party.

“You dance with Pyrrha yet?” Ruby asked.

Jaune sighed. ““Nora’s been hinting at that all night. Are you part of her schemes?”

“Unfortunately,” Ruby said. “Just not in the way you think. Why are _you_ so weird about this?”

“Look, Ruby, I don’t deserve… probably the wrong way to put it.”

“You know what,” Ruby said, “Pyrrha’s right. You are too hard on yourself. _Why am_ I _the one who keeps telling people that?_ she thought.

“Ruby… Ruby, I’m not… I’m not a good person, Ruby.”

Ruby sipped her punch. “Go on?”

“It’s nothing, never mind.”

“If you don’t tell me right now mister I’m going to bug you about it for the next three years!” Ruby said. “What’s up?”

Jaune grimaced and lowered his voice so that no one else would overhear. “I’ve told you that I come from a family of Hunters, right?”

“Yeah.”

“When I was a kid, I was obsessed with tournaments. I was one of those people who would get super technical about each fighter’s abilities. Seriously, I was the worst. I even had an entire spreadsheet of random stats.” He laughed. “When I was old enough to try going to a Combat School, I failed. I tried over and over again, but I failed every time. I knew a lot of stuff, but I never bothered to put in the work to apply it to myself.

“So I cheated. I forged some documents to get accepted into a Combat School here in Vale. If I wanted an excuse, I could blame not getting enough attention from my mom, I have _a lot_ of siblings, but really it’s because I was entitled. Luckily, I was immediately caught.”

Ruby’s eyes widened. Cheating to get into a Combat School or an Academy was dangerous for a lot of reasons. Students had gotten killed being put in situations they weren’t ready for. She opened her mouth to say something, but she wasn’t sure what. Ruby wanted to hear the rest of what he had to say, so she stayed silent and let him talk.

“My mom was contacted, and I got in trouble, yadda, yadda. In the end, I kinda got depressed. Not because I got caught, but because I was so pathetic that I tried cheating in the first place. So, I decided to do something about it for the first time in my life. I asked my mom to train me, and despite no talent, she personally trained me for three years. I was lazy and useless, but she finally got me to the point where I was accepted into Beacon without a Combat School degree.

“As much as I want to be, I honestly haven't gotten any better. I consistently do shitty things. I let my team down all the time. I was a weirdo to Weiss. I can’t be the center of the team, so I just wander off and sulk at punch tables. So I look at Pyrrha and I think: That’s someone who is the perfect Hunter. She trained, works hard every day, and deserves everything that she gets. The only reason _I’m_ here is because I’m lucky and I convinced people to drag me here. My mom, Pyrrha, even you in some ways.”

Ruby didn’t know what to say. She sipped her punch and looked up at her friend. “That’s rough.”

Jaune chuckled. “And here I am dumping this on you when we should be having fun.”

Ruby leaned her head back. “You must really care about your mom if you feel that guilty about letting her down,” she said.

Jaune nodded.

_Must be nice,_ Ruby wistfully thought.

“But back to the matter at hand,” Ruby said. “Pyrrha. You like her. A lot. Like, more than literally every other student at this school does. And spoilers Jaune, she likes you too.”

“No she--”

Ruby shushed Jaune. “Fine. Believe whatever you want, but…” she sighed. “Just ask her to dance, man.”

“Didn’t you listen to a word I said? I have some deep-seated self-hatred issues.”

“I’m not saying you should marry her!” Ruby said and Jaune super-blushed. “I’m not even saying you should go out with her. One thing at a time and don’t be afraid of that. Just ask her for one dance. No matter how shitty you feel about yourself, just a dance shouldn’t…”

Ruby shut up. She looked up at all the dancers as the words she just said repeated in her brain. Couples, everywhere. Having a blast. Having the time of their young lives.

And she wasn’t a part of it.

“Hold. My. Punch.” Ruby handed Jaune her plastic cup and started walking, leaving a very confused young man with two cups and half of an inspirational speech.

Ruby started looking around the hall. After her dance with Yang, Ruby lost track of Blake and where she wandered off to. The punch or snack table seemed like a logical location, but Ruby was just there, and she’d just caught sight of the snack table and still no Blake.

Ruby caught sight of Yang flirting with some third-years and booked it towards her sister.

“Yang!” Ruby said. “Where’d Blake go?”

“Uhhh,” Yang said a little startled at Ruby’s sudden appearance. “She stepped outside for a bit? Side door, not the front door.”

Ruby zoomed off before Yang could even blink. She found the side entrance, half covered by some decorations, slipped through and went down the stairs to the courtyard where she was brutally ambushed by Nora and Ren yesterday.

Blake was standing next to the fountain to get away from the party. She was on her Scroll, just passing the time. Ruby stopped once she reached the bottom of the stairs. The moon was shining down on Blake, her dress shining like a cluster of silver stars. Her long black hair swayed in the soft breeze. Blake brushed some of it to the side of her face and looked up at Ruby, surprised to see her.

Ruby scrambled up to her. “Dance with me!” she said.

Blake blinked. “Huh?”

Ruby gulped. “If you want to that is,” she said. “I’m shy, okay.”

Blake was a little taken aback. “Sure,” she said, setting her Scroll down next to her bag by the fountain.

Ruby grinned. She held her right hand out for Blake to rest her hand in and put her left hand on Blake’s waist, letting Blake put her other hand on Ruby’s arm near her shoulder.

“Ready?” Ruby asked.

“Go for it,” Blake said.

A slow jazz waltz started playing behind them as they began dancing. Ruby counted the steps in her head. _One. Two. Three. Remember what Nora said,_ she thought. _Keep eye contact and don’t just go in a square._ Ruby looked up at Blake. She still looked a little surprised by Ruby’s sudden proposal to dance, but at least she looked amused, and that was better than nothing.

_Holy cow,_ Ruby thought. There was something about those amber eyes up close that made Ruby feel like she should draw closer. Real close. Ruby realized that she’d never been this close to Blake. She could feel Blake’s breath on her lips and neck. And now she’d lost count. _One, two, three, and don’t just go in a square,_ she tried to recover. Ruby looked down at her feet. _Oh boy_. The embarrassment was starting to settle in now that her adrenaline rush had settled,

Ruby stumbled a little. “Sorry,” Ruby said. Even after hours of Nora and Ren’s training yesterday, she was still as clumsy as a newborn. Personally, she blamed the heels. They forgot to teach her how to dance in them.

“You’re fine,” Blake said.

Ruby looked back up. It was dark out, so it was hard for Ruby to tell, but… was Blake blushing? Ruby definitely was. Both of them quietly cleared their throats and went back to focusing on the dance.

The strings kicked in as the song swelled. After her stumble, Ruby was starting to get used to the six steps. She hadn't looked down at her feet in a while. Ruby smiled up at Blake who smirked back. Blake was the first to laugh, with Ruby giggling a little right after: A mutual understanding of how silly Ruby just running up to her was. Their dancing got faster with the music. Ruby was keeping up and frankly, now that she was getting used to it, wasn’t too bad. Good enough to get a little confident. Ruby decided to try a trick that Ren showed her. At the right moment during the music, Ruby spun Blake around and effortlessly returned to their dance position and resumed the six steps. Ruby almost gasped in relief that she pulled it off, but she kept her cool.

Blake smiled. “Hey, you’re not half bad,” she said.

“Thanks,” Ruby said. Her thoughts were in a weird mixture of, _I can’t stop looking at you_ , and, _I’m too scared to look at you_. The shattered moon was glowing beautifully in the night sky behind Blake, beaming down on them; mixing in with the soft yellow light from the dance hall and the green light from the CCTS tower, creating a spectrum of colors around their secluded dance floor. It was the second time that evening that Blake looked like she was glowing.

“Hey, Ruby?” Blake said.

“Yeah!” Ruby had just downed several glasses of punch, why was her throat so dry?

“Thank you for asking me to dance.”

“No problem,” Ruby said.

Ruby didn’t want it to end. Right now, she could dance forever. But she knew that eventually, the song would reach its final note, and it would all be over. Right now, in this moment, she couldn’t handle that.

She thought about what she’d said to Jaune. For the first time, she’d taken her own advice, and thank god for that. But how about going just one step further. It wasn’t even a big step, but she couldn't help but question if it was too fast. Not a good practice to immediately break your own advice and charge right into something. Even if it was a bad idea, Ruby was good and charging in.

“Um, hey Blake?”

“Yeah?”

“You want to go to Vale on Sunday and just hang--” Ruby inhaled, closed her eyes and started over. “Want to go on a date?”

Blake stopped dancing.

Ruby opened her eyes and looked up at her, worried that she broke her own advice to Jaune too fast.

“Sure,” Blake said.

Ruby blinked in surprise. “Okay.”

“Okay,” Blake said smiling.

“OK!” Ruby cleared her throat. “Ahem, yeah.”

Ruby started the dance steps again, with Blake following her leader around the fountain. The music was coming to its last verse, the two Hunters-in-training silently staring at each other, not wanting to say anything to interrupt their precious moment.


	12. Something Worth Messing Up

“With this character you want to get in close for a command grab,” Weiss said.

“Like this?” Winter asked.

“A little closer.”

“Like  _ this? _ ”

Weiss tsked and clicked the buttons on her controller even harder. Her character on the screen took more damage than she was planning, so she was going to have to take her older sister more seriously. Weiss started a combo, beating down the character Winter was playing until she built up enough points for a super move, blasting Winter across the screen into an exploding heap.

“It’s a stupid game,” Weiss said offhandedly.

“Then why are you so good at it?” Winter said, mashing buttons to get her character back into the fight as quickly as possible. “Damn!”

“Yang taught me. She is obsessed with these games,” Weiss said. “I see you’re blocking a lot.”

“Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do?” Winter asked.

"Not if you want to win," Weiss said with a smirk. Weiss let her character's guard down, letting Winter go on the offensive. Instead of blocking, Weiss parried Winter's attack, trapping her in another combo and ending the match.

“K.O.!!!” The announcer in the game shouted.

Winter looked over at her sister. “So, it’s  _ Yang _ who’s obsessed?”

They both sat back, finally relaxing after a brief but tense match. Weiss was in a t-shirt and sweatpants, with Winter out of uniform herself, wearing jeans for the first time in what felt like months. The two of them were sitting on the floor of Weiss’s dorm having a lazy Sunday afternoon. Winter requested a day off to spend with Weiss and brought over some food to share with her sister as an excuse to get to know each other again. After they ate, she became a little curious about the game console next to the bunk beds, and Weiss convinced her to try playing a couple rounds.

“So, where is your team hiding?” Winter said, dropping the game controller in her lap.

“Ruby and Blake are hanging out in the city, and Yang wandered off... somewhere. Who knows? You want to play another round?”

“Why not?” Winter said. She clicked the menu option and opened up the character selection screen. 

Every so often she’d glance over at her sister. It was odd seeing her in casual clothes. When both of them were children, it felt like every moment of their lives needed to be suffocatingly formal.

“How have you been doing?” Winter asked.

“Pretty good,” Weiss said. She lowered her voice. “Thank you for the money, by the way…”

“I just wish I could spare more right now,” Winter said. More than anything she wanted to give Weiss all of her attention right now. But she had a job to do, and she had to use all the free time and resources she could get her hands on wisely. “Has _ he _ been leaving you alone?”

Weiss nodded. “...Yeah.”

“I’m sorry,” Winter said. “I left you there when I knew exactly what father would do to you.” She looked down at the controller in Weiss’s hands. “I just… I’m so sorry, Weiss.”

“Winter…” Weiss said. “I forgave you a long time ago.”

Winter finally looked up towards her sister.

Weiss was smiling. “I love you, sis. Nothing’s going to change that.”

Winter sniffled a little. “I promised myself I wouldn’t do this,” she said trying to dry her nose.”

Weiss wrapped an arm around her sister and pulled her in for a hug.

It was strange looking back on her time as a Schnee. They both dealt with it for so long and been hurt in too many ways to count. Winter was just lucky enough to have all her scars on the inside. But they’d managed to come through it. Her days spent terrified and alone in that house felt farther away than they’d ever been before. Here they were, sitting on the carpet, wearing t-shirts, and playing silly cartoon games after eating takeout. It wasn’t the most sophisticated meal for a reunion, but the company was the real point of it.

Winter pulled away and wiped her eyes. “Now,” she said, picking back up her controller, “What about this character?”

Pretty soon the dorm room was filled with the clacking sounds of controllers and occasional teasing banter between sisters. It’d been too long, but Winter was going to do everything she could to make up for it.

 

* * *

 

Ruby was practically hiding behind her menu while sitting across from Blake. They’d been at their small table for over three minutes, and Ruby already didn’t know what to do with herself. After Ruby ate some dinner, she’d met up with Blake at a small cafe she’d heard about from Weiss, who’d heard about it from Velvet, who Weiss said had impeccable taste, so here they were. Ruby was engaging in her classic dating “tactic” of awkwardly glancing at her date while mostly “studying” her surrounding. Partially for escape routes. Blake’s face was too neutral for Ruby to be sure about her mood, but that being said, she seemed to be looking around the cafe almost as much as Ruby was.

“You going to order?” Blake asked.

Ruby snapped out of it and noticed the waiter standing next to them.

“Ahhh,” she said as she glanced at the menu again. “Sorry, I’ll have a mochaccino.”

The waiter nodded and turned to Blake.

“I’ll have a chai green,” Blake said.

The waiter took their menus, said that they’d be back in a minute with their orders, and left the two young women to their riveting exchange of dialogue.

“So… a date?” Blake said.

“Uh, yeah.”

"Just because you asked me out doesn't mean you needed to disappear yesterday."

Ruby inhaled through her teeth. “Ahhh hahaha… ha…” After the dance, her old anxiety kicked right back to where it should be, so she ended up spending her entire Saturday with Team JNPR rather than face the girl she wanted to spend some time with. But the moment had finally come; she couldn’t run away and if she didn’t start talking now she was going to go back to looking at the chair next to the table behind Blake forever and  _ she _ was the one who asked Blake and that would be rude and everything was already falling apart and bad enough as is!

_ I talk to her all the time, why is it awkward NOW, _ she thought. At times like this, Ruby always had her classic fallback strategy: Try to start a conversation about how there is no conversation going on. It (almost) never failed.

“So,” Ruby started, “what do people talk about during stuff like… this?”

Blake leaned back and lowered her voice. "Well, the last proper date I went on, we ended up discussing what colors work best for a guerrilla rebel group."

Ruby looked down at the table. “Oh,” she said.

“Yeah,” Blake said. “She and I both agreed that red was a good upgrade from the blue flag. You?”

“We just sat there in awkward silence…” Ruby said.

“Oh,” Blake said. She looked down at the table.

“Yeah…” Ruby said. Everything that Nora and Ren briefly taught her yesterday when they found out about the upcoming date was now forgotten.  _ Damn you, brain! _

The waiter returned with their drinks and set them down in front of the two silent figures.

“Not a coffee person?” Ruby said, blowing on her drink to cool it.

“I like it fine,” Blake said. “It’s just not my go to.”

“Neat,” Ruby said. She took a sip. Delicious.

With no other alternatives, they soon descended into conversation starters. Their discussion on favorite foods went nowhere fast, and talking about their favorite classes or professors was too depressing

“Favorite color?” Blake asked.

Ruby looked at the cloak around her shoulders. “Red.”

“Oh,” Blake said.

“Favorite book?” Ruby asked.

“You probably don’t want me to start getting into that.”

“Why now?”

“What if I asked you to go into how you designed Crescent Rose?” Blake said.

“Oh god…” Ruby said.

“Yep.”

“OK… how about…” Ruby said. “Dog person or cat per… oh…”

Ruby hesitated to look back at Blake’s expression. Her cold stare almost audibly announced that she was very much not amused.

“I mean… like… no, like… pets you know… oh boy.”

Blake’s expression remained deadly, and Ruby shrank into her chair, running through those escape routes she picked out earlier.

After a good ten seconds, Blake smirked, and Ruby gasped a loud sigh of relief.

Blake chuckled and took a drink of her tea before looking Ruby dead in the eye. “I hate dogs,” she said in the most serious tone imaginable.

“Even corgis?” Ruby was shocked. “But Zwei, that’s our dog…” she pointed to herself, “dog person, is the best dog ever!”

“Yes,” Blake said. “Yang has told me about your hellhound.”

Both of them took a sip. Ruby finished her coffee and thought about how she was going to have to reevaluate their compatibility.

Blake slammed her cup down.“God this is stupid,” she said. “We literally live together!” Blake grabbed her wallet and put some money on the table. “We’re going on a walk.”

“And talk about what?” Ruby said.

"I don't know. Just point at anything funny and we'll go from there. Who cares?" Blake finished the last of her tea, stood up, and, despite Ruby's protest, grabbed her by the hood and dragged her out of the cafe.

They walked down a small single lane street between the larger roads in the entertainment district, which had a bunch of hole in the wall shops and markets. Only a few people were around, mostly in couples, going out for a nice stroll through the city on a Sunday evening. Ruby was wearing a sweater under her cloak and some warmer and less mobile leggings for their casual date, and Blake had worn a grey jacket with a purple scarf and beanie. The stores and buildings around them were littered with Vale flags, advertisements announcing 30% off sales, and other decorations for the upcoming holiday.

“City’s feeling festive, isn’t it?” Blake said.

“It’s pretty good,” Ruby said. “But you should see what we pull off on Patch for New Years.”

“I’m not a big festival person,” Blake said.

“Yeah,” Ruby said. “I mean, you just don’t seem like… at the dance you…” Ruby sighed. “Sorry.”

Blake laughed. “Let’s face it, we’re not as good at talking to each other as we are with Weiss and Yang.”

“You mostly argue with Weiss though,” Ruby said. 

“True,” Blake said.

“Yang’s my sister, and… I don’t know. Weiss is easy to talk to,” Ruby said. 

“And I’m not?”

“No. You’re just,” Ruby said, “a lot like me I guess.”

Blake’s face scrunched. “Not really,” she said. “At all.”

“I guess not huh?” Ruby laughed. “You’re much more stoic.”

“You think I’m stoic?” Blake asked.

“You don’t know you’re stoic?” Ruby said.

“I guess I never thought about it.”

“You’ve got Ren running for his money.”

“I’m not nearly as stoic as Ren!”

“You are too.”

“Well what do you know,” Blake said. She laughed and mouthed “stoic” to herself.

“You smile a lot more though,” Ruby said. “But maybe I just pay more attention to…” Ruby blushed and turned back to the road in front of them.

Blake cleared her throat and put her hands in her jacket pockets. “Starting to get cold,” she said suddenly.

“Sure is!” Ruby said, glad the conversation changed.

“We had a much longer summer than usual.”

“I guess,” Ruby said. “I’m glad though. I miss the snow. We used to get so much on Patch, it got crazy.”

“Really?” Blake said.

“Oh yeah. Yang and I used to climb up to the roof all the time,” Ruby said. She and Yang would sled down the hill back into town. Why walk when you could have fun? Yang would say. There were so many winter rituals they and Dad had. For Ruby, winter had always started by the three of them hiking into the woods together with a bundle of mom’s favorite flowers. “I guess it’s almost that time again,” she said to herself.

“Time for what?” Blake asked.

“Oh, sorry,” Ruby said. “Every year, Yang, Dad and I would visit my mom’s grave together right after the first big snowfall. She was kinda a local hero on Patch, so she got this beautiful grave all by herself on a cliff a good hike away from town. Dad says that she loved that spot. It overlooks the entire valley, and you can see half the island from up there. I used to go up there whenever I needed a little time to myself. It just felt like I was a little closer to her somehow, even though I can barely remember her. It’s going to be weird not doing it this year,” she said.

Blake nodded in understanding.

“How about you?” Ruby said. “What season is your season?”

“I was always a little partial to fall myself,” Blake said. “When I was… when I was in the White Fang, we spent a lot of time hiding out in camps or old overgrown cities. Most of the infrastructure works as well as we needed it to, one time we even found a house that still had electricity. Whenever it got around autumn, it was like the entire world changed. We were surrounded by gold and red leaves; I loved watching them blow off the trees and scatter around the base camp.” She laughed. “Every fall, one of our members, his name was Basil, would make this amazing cobbler. Our entire squad would bug him about when he’d make it every year, but he always managed to surprise us with it. It was to die for.”

The street lamps started flicking on. Ruby looked up at the sky. She hadn’t realized how dark it’d gotten during their walk. Looking over at Blake, she’d never thought about White Fang members having fun or just doing normal day to day things. The image of Blake and other members huddled around a fire enjoying a good meal wasn’t what Ruby thought about whenever she imagined Blake’s time in the White Fang.

“The leaves also made really good camouflage for ambushes,” Blake said.

_ There it is, _ Ruby sighed. Her previous image of the terrorist group snapped back.

Blake had a small smile on her face. She was obviously reminiscing on other anecdotes of her time with the White Fang. Her smile was nostalgic, but a little sad. Considering what Blake had told her about leaving the group and training to become a Hunter to contribute positively to the world, it wasn’t the type of expression that Ruby was expecting.

They walked a few blocks along the river that ran through Vale as the sun descended below the sea’s horizon. After an hour of exploring the city together, they'd finally loosened up. At times Blake would stop to look at something while Ruby skipped ahead a few steps. Ruby would point out an obscure monument that she’d heard about in school and Blake would pretend to be impressed. One time Ruby told Blake to wait where she was, and after a while, Ruby quickly came back with two fried desserts she’d bought for them before continuing their walk.

“Hey?” Blake said with her mouth full. She swallowed and ate some crumbs around her mouth. “Was Yang acting weird yesterday?”

“She was acting pretty normal from what I saw,” Ruby said, throwing her wrapper in a garbage bin. “Even when I mentioned we were both going off campus today.”

“Did you mention it was a date?” Blake said.

“Not really.”

“Well, I kinda did.”

“Oh…”

They both laughed and fell into another silence between conversations, this one much more comfortable than the ones at the cafe. Ruby snuck a glance over at Blake. She was smiling. They started walking over the bridge over the river that headed towards the residential district. Blake turned to Ruby. “Thank you, Ruby,” she said. “I… Yang’s right, honestly, I need to get out more.”

“So she’s given you that lecture too?” Ruby said.

Blake laughed, and Ruby blushed. She was standing a lot closer to Ruby than usual. Ruby gulped and let out a long exhale to calm herself, the cold revealing her breath.

A multicolored flash and crackle appeared over the residential district. Blake and Ruby turned, catching sight of a shower of sparks burst into the night sky. Another set of fireworks erupted in a few spots through the city and exploded with flashes of green and blue light. Both of them gasped in wonder. The lights not only exploded above them but also reflected off the river under them, basking them in light for a few seconds before fading until the next firework was set off.

“I thought Victory Day was next week,” Blake said.

“Some people like to set them off a little early,” Ruby said. “We did the same thing on Patch.”

“Why fireworks?” Blake asked. “I’m not from Vale, so I don’t know.”

“Oh! Not sure.” Ruby wasn’t from Vale either, she just knew a little more about it from having a Vale curriculum in elementary school back on Patch.

“Do they symbolize the war somehow?” Blake said. “Like explosions or something? Pretty dark if they do.”

“Well, what about after the war when everyone blew up their Dust reserves because they didn’t need it anymore?” Ruby said.

“That didn’t actually happen,” Blake said.

“What?!” Ruby said.

“Yeah,” Blake said. “No historical basis.”

“Damn,” Ruby said. She knew some people who would be pretty pissed if they heard that. “Nice story though.”

“It is,” Blake said.

Another series of fireworks flew into the sky and burst into light. Ruby glanced over at Blake again. Blake looked deep in thought, maybe even a little troubled. Blake turned towards Ruby, this time, Ruby didn’t pretend to not be looking. Blake’s amber eyes reflected the lights in the sky and glowed like two soft suns that Ruby was ready to get lost in.

“I’m not…” Blake started to say. “Alright. Be direct,” she said, to which of them Ruby couldn’t tell. “Do you like me?”

“Um…”

“Like, in a ‘you want me to be your girlfriend’ way?”

“ _ I _ asked  _ you  _ out?” Ruby said.

“Because sometimes I get signals mixed up and I don’t want to mess this up,” Blake said. “If this is something I can mess up that is.”

“Okay,” Ruby said. She inhaled. “Since we’re doing ‘real talk’. I really like you, Blake.” She caught a look at Blake’s blush between firework flashes. “And I would like this to be something that, I guess, can be messed up.”

“I’m not… I’m not good at relationships stuff. I don’t really know if I’m cut out for it honestly. But doing stuff like this, well not really this stuff but dating stuff, with you is really nice because I really care about you and there’s something about you that makes me feel like I can just let myself out and relax or something.”

This time it was Ruby who was blushing. _Holy shit!_ she thought. _Blake likes me._ _Oh my god, Blake actually likes me!_

Blake continued, “What I don’t get is, why me?”

“What do you mean?”

Blake leaned against the bridge rails and looked out over the water. “You’re just a ball of sunshine!” she said. “Going around making sure that everyone feels better about themselves. Me, Weiss. From what I’ve heard you even had time the other day to get Jaune off his ass and ask Pyrrha to dance. You bring everyone around you up, and I’m… not. I’m just some moody antisocial bookworm who couldn’t give a shit. So, why do you give a shit about me?” Blake hesitantly looked back at Ruby.

Ruby looked her dead in the eyes. “You’re awesome,” she said.

“I’m really not,” Blake said.

“I’m not as good at words as you are, Blake!” Ruby fidgeted. She was losing the moment, and she needed to come up with something to convince Blake that she was serious about this and she didn’t know how to spin that word tapestry. “I don’t know. You’re hot! And I like hanging out with you too and doing dating stuff, with you, sounds nice, and… screw it!”

Ruby grabbed Blake by the scarf. Blake squeaked in surprised as Ruby pulled her face to face. Blake was taller than Ruby expected, so it was a little weird, but she managed to pull herself up until they were a few inches apart. Ruby glared at Blake, her face scrunched in determination. She was always better at acting over explaining anyway. 

Ruby leaned forward and kissed Blake.

White fireworks exploded behind them as Ruby mashed her face into Blake’s. She had her eyes squeezed shut, and Blake was wide-eyed in surprise.

Ruby pulled away, forgetting about breathing for a few too many seconds. She cleared her throat and looked back up at Blake. Blake’s expression of surprise hadn't changed. 

“Um,” Blake tried to think of something to say.

“That was really bad wasn’t it?” Ruby said.

Blake grimaced. “Yeah…” she said.

Ruby sighed and looked down at her boots.

“Could we work on it though?” Blake asked.

Ruby looked back up wide-eyed. Blake was still bent down from Ruby holding onto her scarf and still wide-eyed too, not in surprise anymore, but eagerly waiting for Ruby’s answer.

Ruby nodded.

 

* * *

 

Yang leaned against the flickering lamp post. She’d tried punching it once or twice to get it to act normally, but it’d only gotten worse. It had a weird green glow to it that made the fluorescent light seem too unnatural. She was standing at the edge of an old parking lot that was more weeds and asphalt patches than actual parking. A car hadn’t parked here for probably as long as Yang’s been alive. She checked her Scroll: Still a minute until he said he’d show up.  _ Guess I got too excited and showed up twenty minutes early, _ she thought. Damn Junior for being punctual.

From where she was she could hear the faint echo of firework explosions. From down here in the industrial district, it sounded a lot deeper. Like thunder.

After a couple of minutes that seemed like forever, Junior showed up a minute late. He walked through a dark alley alone, smoking a cigarette and looking over his shoulder. When he saw Yang, he sighed, took the cigarette out of his mouth and flicked it across the old parking lot, a tiny shower of sparks faded out as soon as they hit the ground.

“Love the venue, Junior,” Yang said. “Come here often?”

“I didn’t want to give you this at the club, okay,” Junior said. He coughed quietly and pulled out a box of cigarettes from his pant pocket. “You’ve gotten me involved in some shit I don’t want to be near.”

“Hey, it’s I owe you, you owe me,” Yang said. “It’s our relationship.” After she used her last favor to get in and out of Atlas, she had to go back and do this guy two more favors in order to get the information out of him he promised. He’d finally came through, only now to be acting weird about the whole thing.

“This turned out to be a bigger deal than a fucking smuggling job, Blondie,” he said lighting another cigarette.

“You said you got something,” Yang said.

“I have contacts who knew a guy who's in with some folks he shouldn't, who got what you wanted,” Junior said. He pulled a blank envelope from his jacket pocket and held it out to Yang. “So, we done?”

Yang frowned. “Yeah, we’re done.” She took the envelope. It wasn’t like Junior to lose his cool like this. But he was a wimp, so it didn’t bother her too much. “What is it?”

“Just some photos,” he said, “but I’m pretty sure it’s her.” He turned to leave through the same alley he came from. “You’re not going to like it though.”

“Why?”

“Ever hear of Adam Taurus?”

Yang squinted. “Maaaybe?” The name sounded really familiar. Like she’d heard it in passing on the news once or twice.

“He’s one of the up and coming White Fang leaders. Good luck.” He quickly walked off, disappearing past the reach of the flicking green light.

Yang ripped open the envelope and looked at the pictures. There was about a dozen, and they were all focused on a masked woman with long dark hair and a red and black short combat dress. She was wearing a white Grimm mask with four eye holes that covered her facial features, but from her messy long black hair to her stance to her weapon in a rotatory sheath, it was her. In every photo, she was standing next to a young masked bull Faunus also wearing a Grimm mask, surrounded by other masked Faunus wearing White Fang iconography. The photos showed the two of them at rallies on a stage in front of crowds, planning in abandoned warehouses, surrounded by weapons and combat gear.

There it was. The piece of the puzzle that was missing for ten years. Yang didn’t know why yet, but she finally realized what she’d left for. Years of Yang wondering what she was doing after all this time? Years of wondering what could be so important that she could so easily leave her own child behind? And here was the answer.

“Mom…”


	13. Happily Ever After

Yang’s punch came a lot faster than Blake was prepared for. Barely able to move her head out of the way, Blake jumped back to distance herself from her partner, but Yang charged in close to keep up her attack. After two strikes, Blake saw an opening and hit the side of Yang’s head. Without giving Yang time to recover, Blake hit Yang in the head again before a follow-up punch to the shoulder. Yang managed to hit back Blake in the side but Blake uppercut Yang in the ribs, knocking the wind out of her and forcing her to take a few steps back.

“You are letting Miss Belladonna get in too many hits, Xiao Long,” Professor Goodwitch said. She was circulating the gym, watching the students sparring. “You’re fighting without Aura or weapons, so your tactics will need to be different.” She folded her arms and moved on to judge another pair of students.

Blake took out her mouthpiece. “You good?” Blake asked.

Yang nodded and adjusted her boxing gloves. She raised her fists and they got back to their sparring match. Yang was even more aggressive than before, hitting at Blake so fast she wasn’t letting Blake lower her guard for a second.

Yang got in another punch, splitting Blake’s lip. Blake’s side was killing her from one of Yang’s earlier punches. It felt like she’d bruised a rib. She wasn’t the only one getting beat up though. Yang had a cut on her nose and cheek, but it didn’t do much for Blake’s confidence. Yang’s eyes didn’t show any sign of exhaustion.

Blake took a step back when Yang charged again. Yang’s attack against Blake’s guard was unrelenting. She hit again, and again, and again, her next punch too fast for Blake to dodge or block.

The buzzer rang at the last moment; Yang stopped her fist right before she hit Blake. Both of them relaxed and exhaled in relief with all the other students in the gym.

“Hopefully this exercise will remind you of the basics,” Professor Goodwitch said. “A Hunter must be able to utilize all their skills and abilities in combat, and it is essential to break them down to their most basic forms and practice them. Class dismissed.”

Blake took off her sparring gear and activated her Aura. The pain in her side and lip started to fade as her Aura healing kicked in. Most of the students headed towards the showers but Blake preferred her privacy for obvious reasons, so she and Yang started heading for their lockers first to put away their sparring gear before heading back to the dorm.

Blake turned towards Yang. "You seem tense today."

“I’m fine,” Yang said.

“Well, I’m pretty sure you tried to kill me back there.”

“Sorry, man,” Yang sighed. “I haven’t been in an Auraless fight in… a while.”

Blake shut off her Aura and felt her face to make sure that the cut on her lip had completely healed. “It’s just you’ve been on edge a lot recently.”

“Just stressed lately, you know,” Yang said.

Blake nodded. “It’s not because… me and Ruby have started…”

“Oh, nah,” Yang waved her comment off. “She can take care of herself.” Yang shut off her Aura and exhaled. “Phew. Although, now that you mention it, I certainly didn’t go easy on you because of that.”

Blake smirked. “Don’t trust me dating your sister?”

“Well, you’ve hidden things before,” Yang said. She looked at Blake. “Too much?”

“A little.”

They both laughed.

Yang fell silent. “Look. Don’t tell her I told you, but not long before we came to Beacon, Ruby’s last girlfriend dumped her. Ruby really liked her, and she seemed nice enough but one day she just ditched her out of nowhere. Wouldn’t even give her the time of day after that. I just want to make sure that Ruby’s doing alright. Sorry if I come across too harsh.”

“I get it,” Blake said. “What about you though? Do you have any issues with me dating her?”

“Oh, that doesn’t matter,” Yang said.

“I swear you two are identical,” Blake said under her breath.

“I’m just surprised how quickly Ruby realized she had a crush. I’m proud of her. Either the both of you will start enabling each other’s antisocial behavior, or you’ll start to pull each other out of your guys’ ruts.”

“Neither of us are in a rut,” Blake said.

“Oh, honey…” Yang said.

“So, what’s actually wrong?” Blake asked.

“Heh, nothing gets past you,” Yang said.

“Nope. Is it your birthday coming up?”

“Oh, you remembered! Nah, it’s not that I just.. I guess I’ve been thinking about my moms a lot lately.” 

Yang sighed as they walked into the locker room. “When I was a baby, my biological mom left. I only knew Summer, my other mom, growing up. I mean, lucky me, Summer was incredible. After Summer died, I tried to find my bio mom. One day I drug Ruby out into the woods to look for her old house. Along the way, we got attacked by Beowolves, but our uncle swooped in at the last second and saved us. Ever since then, Ruby wanted to be a Hunter, used to bug him about letting her practice with his scythe all the time. If it weren’t for him, I would've gotten us killed.

“Sorry, it’s ancient history. Just some stuff came up, and it’s been distracting me lately.”

“No, you’re good,” Blake said. That continual feeling of guilt was something she understood. Leaving the White Fang and her choice to become a Hunter had filled her entire life for the past year, and it wasn’t until recently that she actually found some distractions. “You need anything, I’m here.”

Yang looked over. “Thanks, Blake,” she said. They opened their lockers. “Hey, I got you too. If there’s anything you need to tell me, just say it. Get it off your chest.”

“Okay,” Blake said.

“Is there anything?” Yang asked.

“Nope.”

They finished unstrapping their gloves and hung up their pads in their lockers.

“We need to get better at team fights,” Yang said. “JNPR almost beat us during our second fight against them, and I’m personally not okay with that.”

“Why?” Blake asked. “They’re a good team.”

“We need to be better than the team that as Pyrrha freaking Nikos on it.”

Blake groaned. What were the odds that she’d be put on a team with three competitive freaks?

Weiss walked into the locker room behind them and started putting some stuff away in her locker.

“Hey Weiss,” Blake and Yang said as they closed their lockers.

“Hey,” Weiss said. “How did sparring going for you two?”

“Pretty good,” Blake said. “Just more bruises than usual.”

“Where’ve you been all day?” Yang asked.

“Just out with Winter,” Weiss said. She closed her locker and leaned against it.

“Cool,” Yang said. "I guess the Atlas Military lurking around isn't all bad."

Weiss rolled her eyes. “Anyway,” she said, “now that CVFY is finally back from the field, Velvet asked me to go over and look at some photos she took.”

“Why does she need you to look at them?” Yang asked.

“Because she’s been gone for almost two weeks and I give an honest and reliable critique.”

Blake and Yang exchanged a look.

“Hey guess what?” Weiss said, shifting topics. She looked around to make sure that no other students were around to listen. “Apparently, General Ironwood has been investigating that Roman guy and the rest of those Dust thieves. Winter wouldn’t say why though.”

“We haven’t seen them in a while. Are they even still in Vale?” Yang said.

“Looks like they’ve gone completely underground,” Blake said.

“Maybe we scared them off?” Weiss said.

“Unlikely,” Blake said. “Probably got what they needed for whatever they’re doing.”

Yang checked the time on her Scroll. “Welp,” she said. “I have a meeting with Oobleck in half an hour, soooo the shower is mine, losers.” Yang started sprinting out of the locker room towards the dorms. Weiss and Blake looked at each other and shrugged in silence alone in the locker room.

_ She could’ve used the public ones, _ Blake thought.  _ Whatever. _

"Is it just me, or is Yang acting strange lately?" Weiss asked.

"She's just got some stuff on her mind," Blake said. "What about you? You've been acting weird too."

" _ I'm _ the one who has to explain to people who's dating who on Team RWBY for the last week," Weiss said. "You and Ruby have made things a little awkward for Yang and I"

"More or less awkward than dating your partner's sister?"

"How about more or less awkward than dating your team leader?"

Blake sighed.

"No offense, there's going to be some changes to the team's dynamic because of you two," Weiss said. "I just hope that Ruby can be objective enough when it comes down to tactical decisions."

"Objectivity huh?" Blake said. "And you wouldn't have that problem?"

Weiss scoffed. “I got over the wanting to be leader thing a long time ago,” she said. “Which reminds me…” Weiss turned towards Blake. “I’ve recently realized that I have a hard time opening up and expressing how I feel.”

“ _ You? _ ” Blake almost laughed.

Weiss frowned but kept talking. “A problem that has gotten me into some difficult situations and caused me some pain. So, before I forget to say it again: Thank you.”

Blake raised an eyebrow. “For what?”

“You helped Ruby get me out of Atlas,” Weiss said. “You have the least reason to do that for me, but… thank you, Blake.”

Blake looked away flustered. “No problem,” she said.

“Well, now that that’s out of the way,” Weiss said, “I’m late meeting Velvet.” She stood up straight and nodded. “Goodbye, Blake.”

Weiss stiffly walked off, leaving Blake alone in the locker room.

“Bye,” Blake said with no one to hear. The first time she met Weiss she came across as a spoiled brat who didn’t deserve being enrolled at a Hunter academy. The last few months had changed a lot.

_ Damn it _ , she thought.  _ She’s my friend, isn’t she _ ? One year really could change a lot about someone’s life, she though. 

Blake started walking towards her dorm, praying that Yang hadn’t already taken all the hot water. She didn’t care what Ruby said, she agreed with Yang. Screw cold showers.

 

* * *

 

“So… how are they?” Velvet asked.

Weiss paced around the room, looking over the latest set of photos taken in Forever Fall while Velvet sat patiently on the bed.  Weiss flipped past a photo of frost clinging to red leaves like a cold spiderweb of ice, to one of what could only have been an Ursa charging directly at Velvet while she was taking the picture.

“You better not be taking up Grimm photography,” Weiss said.

“The opportunity presented itself,” Velvet said. “And god no! Those guys are crazy. Also, illegal.”

“For good reason.”

“What about the photo though?”

“The lighting is all off.”

“I knew it!”

“But other than that,” Weiss said as she handed back the photos, “masterpieces as always.”

Velvet squeed and took them back. “I knew I got some good ones this time.” Velvet looked up at Weiss. “You end up doing anything for Victory Day?”

“My team dragged me outside for some fireworks,” Weiss said. “I’d never even heard of the holiday before Ruby got all excited about buying explosives. You?”

“Not really,” Velvet said. “We went to the dance, but there wasn't any time to celebrate in the middle of a Grimm hunt. Which is fine. None of us are very patriotic, I guess.”

“Ruby and Yang aren’t even from Vale, and they still got into it,” Weiss said.

“Really? I grew up here and I couldn't be bothered,” Velvet said. “Maybe it’s just my family doesn’t care for it much. Not that it has anything to do with me though. I would love to see their reaction if they heard we hang out.”

“I was disowned,” Weiss said folding her arms.

“A lot of Schnee’s have been disowned,” Velvet said. “And it doesn’t get rid of the name, and the literal decades of Faunus exploitation and prejudice, etc.”

“I’ve gotten better,” Weiss said. “I have Faunus friends.”

“Ooohhhh.”

“Shut up,” Weiss said.

“I mean like what? Two? Granted that’s like one-hundred percent of all the Faunus in Beacon, so good for you.”

Weiss laughed but froze. “You know about… Blake?” she said quietly.

“Do you know how many times I’ve put on a hat to sneak into a place without drawing attention to myself?” she said. “Every single Faunus with an ear or horn trait has done that. I knew the first time I saw her in class.”

“Guess I’m just bad at noticing things,” Weiss sighed.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Velvet said.

“It’s nothing,” Weiss said.

Velvet looked Weiss up and down and put her photos on the dresser next to the bed. “So what’s been bothering you lately?” Velvet said. “What happened while I was gone? You’re acting just as moody as I was when I broke up with my last boyfriend.”

“No, I’m not!” Weiss said.

Velvet raised an eyebrow.

Weiss sighed and sat on the bed next to Velvet. “Yeah okay,” she said. “I started to care about someone… romantically… but it’s nothing. It’s not going anywhere.”

“Well, what happened?”

“Basically, I realized that I like someone--like a fool--so I started distancing myself from them. Just a little. And now… I was scared, okay? I didn’t want things to change and I didn't want to threaten the thing we already had… But before I knew it, they started dating someone else, so I was too late.” Weiss sighed. “I just need to get over it,” she said. “I’m practically an adult and jealousy is too beneath me to be affecting my day to day life as much as it is.”

Velvet looked at Weiss and put a hand on her shoulder. “You’ve been through a lot Weiss,” she said. “And because of that… It’s okay to feel things.”

Weiss nodded. She leaned against Velvet’s shoulder. “Thanks, Vel.”

“Anytime,” Velvet said.

Weiss sat up, took in a deep breath and let it go. “If my name is so toxic then why do you keep asking me to join you on your photo shoots?”

“You’re the only person I know who will pose for pictures…” Velvet smirked. 

Weiss cracked up and elbowed her friend.

 

* * *

 

After a nice shower, Blake was on her bed reading a book by one of her favorite authors. She was wearing her pajamas, and still relaxed from that cup of tea she brewed earlier. All settled in for a perfect evening.

The dorm room door opened and Ruby walked in dragging her feet and groaning in exhaustion. “Blake…” Ruby wined.

Blake looked up from her book.

“Hey,” Ruby said, slowly turning and closing the door behind her.

“Hey,” Blake said.

Ruby dropped her backpack in the middle of the floor and slouched even closer to the ground. “Professor Amber is  _ meeean _ ,” she said.

Blake nodded and picked up where she left off in her reading.

“She wants us to lower our Aura depletion rate by 15% in two weeks and I  _ caaaaaannn’t _ .”

Ruby flopped onto the bed next to Blake and kicked off her shoes.

“I’m so tired,” she said as she slowly scooted herself up the bed and rested her head on Blake’s lap. “Maybe Professor Amber would be a better teacher if she didn’t randomly shout ‘Aura!’ and chuck stuff at random students.”

“She got you good that one time.”

“It’s not productive!”

Blake looked down at her fearless leader. “Just remember why you’re here and you’ll power through it.”

Ruby stopped whining and rolled to look up at the bunk above them. “You know… I’m not really sure anymore.”

“I was joking,” Blake said, a little surprised.

“Oh yeah… I know, it’s just. I’m not complaining about the hard work. Don’t get me wrong. It’s just that somehow becoming a Hunter seems less important than it usually does. I don’t know.”

She rolled back into Blake’s lap.

_ You too huh? _ Blake thought.  _ What am I doing? _ After a whole year of preparing for the Academy, she didn't expect it to turn out like this.

Blake leaned against the backboard and looked down at the tired dork lying on her. She smiled, set down her book and rubbed Ruby’s hair, causing her to quietly hum in satisfaction. She reached up with her other hand and undid her bow. Her ears perked up as she inhaled and closed her eyes.

“You’re a good pillow,” Ruby said.

“You’re a menace,” Blake said. She picked back up her book and looked at the page.

Ruby pulled herself up, wrapped her arms around Blake and kissed her on the cheek.

Blake kept pretending to read her book but couldn’t help but smile.

“Alright enough of that,” Blake said. “I’m getting to a good part.”

“I am the good part,” Ruby said.

Blake sunk into the bed against Ruby. Still looking at her book, she sighed and leaned her head against Ruby’s.

 

* * *

 

_ “If everything just stopped right then and there I would sound like the hero in one of Blake’s books. We stopped some bad guys, saved a princess, I got the girl. Things were really looking up. It was like Team RWBY was on top of the world. _

_ "But I guess good times… _

 

**One Month Later...**

 

The center of the plaza exploded.

The statue burst apart in a fiery blast. Ruby hit the ground, either the shockwave knocking her off her unprepared feet or dropping from instinct. Some shop windows cracked and chunks of brick and metal scattered around the plaza and into the streets surrounding it. The explosion was over in a second but the dust cloud was already filling the block and spreading above the commercial district.

Ruby tried pushing herself up but fell on her side. She managed to roll over onto her back and gasp for breath. Her lungs filled with burnt dust. Ruby coughed, trying not to choke as a feeling like strong static electricity burst around her body. Red energy crackled as it spread around her as a reflex to the stress. But her ears already were ringing from the blast and her eyes stung from all the smoke. 

Her sight was blurry, but she saw a dark shape over her. It seemed to be yelling something at her, but the ringing was too loud to really make out...

“Ruby!” Blake screamed.

Ruby’s hearing and sight snapped back. She pulled herself off the ground. No damage had been done to her other than some gravel on her cloak. She leaned against Blake who was kneeling next to her. 

 

_ “...can’t last forever. _

 

A large, lumbering creature emerged. A Grimm. One of the monsters that Ruby had been training for years to kill as efficiently as possible. It had long black fur, so dark that it blended into the shadows behind it. Its large swaying body shifted across the ground, dragging claws that lazily dug into the earth. It opened its jaws and breathed, revealing jagged canines, crafted for ripping apart flesh. Bone spikes pierced out of its fur, awkwardly swinging back and forth as the creature moved step by step into the city. Its head was the skull of a wolf, with blood-red veins across the bleached bone, which held back two piercing yellow eyes.

From inside the tunnel, more dark shapes appeared. Several more Grimm of various shapes started to claw their way up to the surface. For the first time in the Kingdom’s history, Vale had been breached.

 

_ “I guess that's when everything really started…” _


	14. The Breach

_ Ruby didn't remember much about her mom. Most of her memories were probably just made up from looking at old family photos or hearing stories from her dad and Yang. One memory that was unquestionably her's, happened when she was very young: Summer sat down her two daughters and talked to them about Grimm. _

_ "After the moon shattered, the Grimm appeared and destroyed human civilization. There's a lot we don't know about them: Where they came from, how they reproduce, why they were created, etc. But there is one thing that is always, always true: They only hunt humans. It’s the only thing that drives them. No matter a person's age, sex, or form. A Grimm's entire purpose is to wipe us out..." _

 

Ruby skid across the ground. She grabbed a long metal pipe out of the shattered concrete and rolled out of the way of a Creep Grimm's claw which slammed down on her from above and buried its leg into the concrete on impact. The Creep ripped its foot out of the ground and roared at Ruby, only for Yang to come up from behind it and grab its muzzle as she tackled it down. It kicked at her, trying to get out of her grip while Yang’s Aura flared. Yang pulled herself above the Grimm and grabbed the top and bottom of its jaw and ripped out, making a wet snapping noise. The Grimm fell to the ground dead, its jaw gruesomely hanging open.

Before she could rest, Yang dodged a swipe from a nearby Beowulf. She recovered and punched it in its face barehanded. The Beowulf shook off the attack and slashed at Yang, damaging her Aura. Yang’s eyes flared as she hit it in the face again--shattering its skull.

Ruby slid up to Blake and bashed a Grimm away with her pipe. Blake was doing the best she could with a sharp metal rod she found among the rubble, but it wasn’t anywhere near as effective as they needed going up against a swarm of Grimm this size.

“We gotta make sure they don’t leave the plaza,” Ruby said. She stabbed at a Grimm and pushed it away, then spun around and smacked it across the skull, staggering it.

“It’s not going to help unless we can seal up that breach,” Blake said.

Ruby stabbed into one of the Grimm’s eye sockets. With a twist, she finally killed one. Without Crescent Rose, it was taking way too long to kill these things. Her Semblance made her makeshift weapon far more effective than in anyone else’s hands, but it was still just a metal pipe. Not exactly Hunter material.

“Weiss!” Ruby called out. “Can you cover the hole?!”

“I’m a little busy!” Weiss yelled back. She was a couple yards away, using only her glyphs to fight off the Grimm. She was having a hard time channeling her Semblance without her rapier, but she was barely managing. A Grimm got a too close to her, but she contained it with three glyphs down its body. She reached forward and pulled her arms out. The glyphs pulled out with her, ripping the Grimm to shreds. Weiss panted heavily as Grimm blood rained around her.

Ruby looked at the rest of her team’s condition. Yang was doing the best out of all of them, only because of her fighting style and Semblance. But if she kept this up, she wouldn’t last very long. Too many Grimm were coming out of the breach for Yang to handle. Hell, too many for all four of them to handle much longer, and Team RWBY hadn’t been fighting a full two minutes yet. Ruby impaled another Grimm and sped back towards the perimeter of the plaza to stop another escaping Creep. Even with her Aura protecting her weapon, the pipe wasn’t built for battle, and just like her team, it wasn’t going to last long.

Four police vehicles pulled up to what was left of the park. The cops inside climbed out and looked at the scene in horror.

“What the hell?” one shouted.

A Grimm jumped on top of one of a cars and roared at them. Before it could attack the officers, a glyph appeared in front of the Grimm and flung it back into the plaza where Yang leapt into the air and clotheslined it midair.

The cops blinked, then scrambled to the back of their vehicle and pulled out the big Dust rifles.

Ruby managed to kill another Grimm by slamming it into its side at superspeed, impaling it deep into its ribs and snapping her weapon in half as the Grimm died. Ruby pulled the remaining half of the pipe out of the evaporating corpse and started clubbing any Grimm she could get close to.

“You Beacon?”

Ruby turned. One of the officers tossed Ruby a rifle. She caught it and checked its ammo: Loaded with fire Dust rounds and ready for combat.

He nodded at her before firing his own weapon into the plaza.

Ruby cocked the gun and zoomed forward into the heart of the battle. She slid down the rubble and blasted a shot into a group of Grimm. The Dust bullet hit one in the chest and fire burst around its fur, frying it into crispy shell. Ruby’s next shot tore through one Grimm and injured another behind it. She slid between one’s legs and shot it twice in the face. Rolling into a triple headshot that caught three Grimm by surprise, Ruby turned and killed another Creep. Fired again. Fired. Missed that one. But the second shot got ’im. Ruby turned and killed another one.

A rumble shook the ground beneath Ruby and crew. They all turned towards the hole as a swell of Grimm started pouring through into the city.

“Holy shit!” Yang said.

Ruby aimed her rifle. “Get ready!” she shouted to her team.

The wall of Grimm charged her. She could easily outrun them, but if a single Grimm made it out of this plaza people would die. She couldn’t afford to run. Ruby lined up her sight at the Grimm at the front of the pack. She calmed her breathing and...

A storm of bullets slammed the front line of Grimm, shredding them to pieces.

Ruby looked up from her gun at the sky. An Atlas drop ship flew by, mowing down Grimm below it.

The ship circled around and opened its drop doors. Some Atlas soldiers and Atlesian Knight robots landed and started shooting any Grimm in their sights. Right behind them, Professor Oobleck and Peach from Beacon jumped down and joined in the hunt. Oobleck blasted a Grimm with his flamethrower, disintegrating it, as Peach stabbed a Grimm in the jugular.

More Atlas drop ships started flying overhead, dropping more Atlas soldiers and Knights, as well as Hunters and students from Beacon to assist. Yang grinned and kept fighting, not noticing a Beowulf sneaking up behind her.

Cardin and his team landed next to her, shattering the ground on impact. Cardin smacked the Grimm behind Yang across the skull with his mace as his team took on Grimm closer to the breach’s entrance. Yang looked back, seeing him finish off the Grimm, nodded, and rushed into the wave of Grimm. Cardin smirked and rushed in after her.

Ruby sped between her peers. She was almost out of ammo, but she had an idea. The Grimm were ignoring the robots, only attacking the soldiers and Hunters. Ruby positioned herself between some Knights, drawing a Grimm near as the Atlas robot filled it with Dust rounds, shredding it as it tripped and fell against the concrete.

Nora and Ren burst into the fray off of a dropship. After loading her hammer, Nora snapped a Dust crystal in her hand, shooting a surge of electricity across her Arua, which burst with power. Charged up, Nora sent three Grimm flying with one strike, the lighting in her Aura sparking and arcing between herself and the Grimm she slaughtered.

Ren fought beside her just as efficiently. He was less ferocious, but he kept up with her in his own way. Ren stabbed a Grimm in the neck and pulled it close to use it as a shield while shooting two other Grimm. After making an opening, he yanked the blade out, killing it, and sliced down another Grimm while firing his weapon simultaneously. One Grimm got too close to him, so he opened his palm and struck the Grimm, sending a wave of his Aura through the creature, crushing it.

After getting plenty of extra ammo from an Atlas soldier, Ruby sped back into the fight. Ren sliced a Grimm across the throat while Ruby finished it off with her rifle while passing. 

She sped her way up to Jaune and Pyrrha, who were fighting back to back. Ruby joined Pyrrha in shooting the Grimm with their rifles while Jaune took care of any that got too close. His sword was in two-handed mode; powerful enough to cleave through anything in range.

“Some way to start winter break!” Jaune nervously laughed.

“I’ve had worse,” Ruby laughed back.

“Name one,” Pyrrha said.

“Just let me sound cool, Pyrrha!”

Jaune blocked a Grimm’s strike with the side of his blade, pushed it back and sliced up, slashing it in half lengthwise.

“So what happened?” Pyrrha said. “We were at school when the breach alarm went off. The Atlas guys gave us a ride.”

“Dust explosion,” Ruby said. “Just started crawling up from under the city.”

Pyrrha fired another shot, transformed her weapon into a sword and sliced through one that was getting too close even with Jaune’s cover, and quickly activated her Semblance. She threw up her arm, bringing some metal pipes erupting out from under the concrete to impale another Grimm.

“Could you cover the breach?” Ruby asked.

Pyrrha transformed her weapon back into a rifle and fired some shots off with Ruby. “If I could get close enough,” she said, “if there’s enough metal, and if you two could hold off enough Grimm to give me the time.”

“Our ammo isn’t going to last forever, so if we’re going to do something we need to do it fast,” Jaune said.

Ruby reloaded and handed one of her extra clips to Pyrrha. I’ll round up my team,” she said. “Just start heading to the center.” Ruby sped away towards the part of the battle where she last spotted Weiss.

In that direction, another Atlas drop ship flew over the battle and dropped off four more Hunter’s-in-training. CFVY landed on the ground as a unit. Coco transformed her weapon out into a giant minigun and opened fire, mowing down countless Grimm coming her way with a wide grin on her face.

The support from Atlas and Beacon made winning the battle possible, but Weiss was still struggling without a proper weapon. She managed to detain a Grimm long enough for an Atlas robot to execute it, but in the corner of her eye, she saw another one heading straight for her, too close to react in time.

A swarm of a dozen glowing swords impaled the Grimm from above and skewered it into the ground. Among the swords were some she recognized, Jaune and Pyrrha’s weapons as well as a couple she’d seen other Hunters-in-training using at school.

Weiss turned and spotted her savior. Velvet approached her position. She stretched out her arm and a glowing replica of Nora’s hammer and Blake’s machete appeared floating above her. The copy of Blake’s sword flew into a nearby Grimm’s leg, crippling it. Velvet grabbed the copy of the hammer out of the air and smashed the Grimm, pasting its skull.

Velvet summoned a copy of Weiss’s rapier and tossed it to her. “Need a hand?” she said.

Weiss grinned and inspected the replica. A little too light, but it would do. She posed with her sword in the air to channel her Semblance; glyphs opened up around them, trapping several of the nearby Grimm. Velvet summoned her copy of Crescent Rose, and in one strike cut the contained Grimm down. Velvet’s Aura projections made her one of the most adaptable and dangerous Hunters training at Beacon. Her ability made her team able to shift their balance and adapt to more combat situations than any other at Beacon. Her projections weren't as strong as the originals and couldn't use Dust, but with enough of them she could make up the difference.

Weiss tossed the weapon between her hands. “Not bad,” she said.

“It won’t last for long, so don’t hold back!” Velvet said. She projected Yang’s gauntlets and crushed a Grimm’s face before finishing it off with a copy of Ren’s knife.

Ruby zoomed up to the two of them and sniped two Grimm. “Head for the center,” she said. “We need to cover Pyrrha!’

“How many times do I have to tell you that I’m busy!” Weiss said, repelling a Grimm with a glyph shield.

“I’ll explain later,” Ruby said. She channeled Aura into her leg and kicked a Grimm into the ground, shattering the earth. “Just do it!’ Ruby said as she sped away.

Weiss threw out a stack of spinning glyphs and pointed them toward the center of the plaza. “Want to help?” she asked Velvet.

Velvet prepped another one of Jaune’s swords and launched it through the glyph. The glyphs accelerated the weapon into a missile. It tore through a dozen Grimm, briefly opening a path towards the breach.

Ruby spotted Yang and Blake fighting and weaved through Grimm to get to them. Along the way she passed Cardin who had his mace trapped in the jaws of a Grimm. He looked like he was struggling with the Grimm, but he smirked. The top of his mace shifted down the handle, revealing a barrel. With a boom, he sent a shotgun blast into the Grimm’s brain. He pulled his gun around and shotgunned another Grimm and another before transforming it back into a mace and returned to hacking away at the enemy.

Blake and Yang were fighting back to back. Blake distracted a Grimm with a shadow before backstabbing it with a knife she got from an Atlas soldier. At this point, Yang was tearing through Grimm like paper, which only showed that her Aura was at the breaking point.

“Oh, hey Ruby,” Yang panted.

“Hey,” Ruby said. She shot a Grimm in front of them. “We think Pyrrha can cover the hole.”

“Makes sense,” Yang said, punching another Grimm.

“But we need to give her cover,” Ruby said. “I already sent Weiss, Velvet, and Jaune over there.”

“Well how are we going to get to them,” Yang said.

She was right. With so many Grimm coming out of the breach, even moving around was getting more difficult.

Ruby provide covering fire for Blake. Just like Yang, both of their Aura’s were getting dangerously low. Neither of them wanted to risk using their Semblance and waste their remaining defense. Ruby started to lose her composure. Even with all the support... Even with the Atlas military... What if they couldn’t hold them back long enough for the main force? What if the Grimm broke through and--?

A reverberating boom echoed across the battlefield as a wave of fire covered the entire park.

The single attack burnt through nearly every Grimm in the plaza. Ruby and Blake shielded their faces from the heat of the blast, their Aura thankfully holding out to protect them. But the fire didn’t burn them. The fire weaved and carefully avoided all the people in the square, destroying all the robots and frying all the Grimm, decimating them. A single attack that did more damage in a moment than all of them could do combined.

The fire died down as quickly as it had appeared. Ruby and Blake finally looked up through the cloud of ash and disintegrating Grimm. What was left of the monsters was a handful of Grimm still barely able to wave their arms and wheeze for air. One dragged itself with one arm towards Ruby, it’s entire lower half and left side burnt away in the blast, before collapsing and dying under its own weight.

A tall Hunter with a large scar across her face entered the plaza. She was closely followed by Goodwitch as she carefully stepped over the remains of the monsters.

Amber reached out towards the center of the park and clenched her fist. Her eyes sparked as a tornado of fire erupted out of the hole. The sound of flame and screaming Grimm filled the city as a cyclone of fire beat them over and over again. Amber only lowered her arm once the gargles of the burning Grimm died down into a silence.

Professor Goodwitch flicked her riding crop weapon and chunks of the ground rose and sealed the breach with a makeshift patch. With only a dozen or so Grimm left to clean up, Amber turned around, her hair covering her eyes, and wordlessly walked away.

The Beacon students around Ruby couldn't help but look in awe. Even for CFVY, who had known her longer than most, this was the first time they’d seen her in action, and it was way above their level or the level of anything they’d heard of.

“Too injured to go into the field my ass,” Yang said while catching her breath.

Ruby had a stunned expression when she watched Amber leave. Atlas soldiers were cleaning up Grimm by walking across the plaza and executing any that hadn’t disintegrated yet. Ruby looked back at the covering made by Goodwitch. The professor had made her way over and was now adding additional reinforcements and planning with Atlas soldiers about how to set up the perimeter.

Somehow they’d managed to hold them back long enough. From what Ruby could tell, the Atlas soldiers and the Beacon students who’d fought only maintained light injuries. A few soldiers were on a stretcher or two for some gnarly slashes, but no one had died.

No Grimm got past their perimeter.

She’d done it.

And after all that, a single, clawing thought gnawed at the back of her head:

_ Ruby, you couldn’t finish the job... _

 

* * *

 

A military camp was set up on the remains of the plaza within an hour. Large tents that served as command centers were surrounded by a large chain link fence and barb wire along the parameter of the camp. Outside, a group of Vale citizens and reporters were gathered trying to figure out exactly what happened earlier that evening.

Inside one of the tents, Team RWBY was sitting on metal folding chairs. To their side were a couple Vale technicians and communication experts on computers, and some workers who had just finished setting up a portable heater. In front of the team was a panel of various officials sitting at a fold-up table. There were two Vale officials that Ruby didn’t recognize, but she picked up from the conversational context that one of them was on the council. The Vale security chief was sitting next to Winter Schnee, who was representing the Atlas military, and Professor Ozpin, who was not nearly as calm and collected as he always looked at school.

“Maintenance workers?” The security chief asked.

“Yeah,” Ruby said. “We were walking past the plaza to head to the… I honestly don’t even remember anymore, but two workers were still there. I couldn't tell what they were working on, but there wasn’t anything suspicious that I noticed other than they were in a hurry to get out of there.”

The Vale official that Ruby didn’t recognize turned to the rest of Ruby’s team. “And did any of you notice anything suspicious?”

“Nope,” Yang said. 

“No, sir,” Weiss said.

Blake shook her head.

Winter turned to the Vale official. “What work was being done at the plaza this afternoon?”

“According to everyone I’ve checked with, there was no planned maintenance for the plaza today,” the security chief cut in. “Someone set up this morning wearing Vale worker uniforms, and with forged papers and stolen equipment.

Weiss leaned forward. “Were they setting the Dust explosive.”

“The explosion came from under the plaza,” Winter said. “It was in one of the old train tunnels that connected Vale and Mountain Glenn before they were sealed off.”

“I would like to remind our Atlas representative that we are the ones asking the questions,” the security chief said.

“Atlas’s continued support in maintaining security in this crisis is much appreciated,” the member of the Vale council said, probably trying to make sure they didn’t accidentally piss off the biggest help they had in keeping this problem under control. The security chief didn’t like it but recognized that it was necessary.

“Everything will be in the official report released in tonight’s press conference,” the security chief said. “Unless there are any oppositions?” he looked at Ozpin, who shook his head in silence.

From what Ruby was sitting, it looked like Ozpin was only invited out of obligation. She had no idea why, but everyone at the table seemed furious at him. Ozpin included.

“If my military’s presence assists in bringing order, then General Ironwood will continue his support,” Winter said. “We will assist in preventing any future events like this.” She looked at every official at the table before finally resting on Ozpin, who didn’t say a word.

Winter looked a little annoyed he didn’t even have a retort.

She turned back to Team RWBY. “You girls can go,” she said. She nodded at Weiss to let her know that they would talk later.

RWBY left the tent. While there was a Vale security presence, most of the soldiers at the camp were Atlas. Vale didn’t have the resources for this type of breach and Atlas was perfectly happy to oblige.

“So, what now?” Yang said.

“No offense guys,” Blake said, “but I’m not really in the mood to hang out anymore.”

A voice behind them spoke up, “Excuse me.”

They all turned as Ozpin followed them out of the tent. “Yes sir?” Ruby said.

Ozpin bowed. “Thank you for leaping into action and protecting the city,” he said. “If it weren’t for you we could have lost so much.”

RWBY looked at each other, not really knowing what to say.

“It was nothing,” Ruby said.

“Literally what you train us to do,” Yang said.

Ozpin laughed. “I guess you’re right.”

“What do they know about the explosion?” Blake asked.

“Blake…” Ruby said.

“It’s alright,” Ozpin said. “You four of all people deserve to know.” He lowered his voice and walked closer to his students. “Roman Torchwick was behind the attack.”

“WHAT?!” RWBY said together.

“He set up a base in Mountain Glenn and reopened the old tunnels. From the reports coming in, he loaded a train full of Dust explosives, and moved it under the city and then used them to blast up into the Plaza.

Ruby was shocked. Like, Roman? The Dust thief guy, Roman? It didn’t make any sense, he was just some guy. Ruby always assumed that he was stealing it just to sell it to some other criminals or at worst he was mixed up in some Mistral crime syndicate, but terrorism? It was insane.

“The base has already been raided by Atlas forces, and Roman is in their custody,” Ozpin said.

“Thank goodness,” Weiss said.

“The problem is that we don’t know if this was the only planned attack,” he said.

“Why not?” Ruby asked.

“In the last six months that he’s been active in Vale, the amount of Dust he’s stolen is more than how much was required for that explosion and what was recovered at his base. Also, some of his more colorful accomplices haven’t been apprehended yet.”

Ruby clenched her fist. To think that every time he escaped from her, it was a moment she could have prevented this. Sure, no one died today, but it was way too close. And it could happen all over again.

And it was all her fault.

“Is there anything we can do?” Yang asked.

“At this point, just let the experts do our job,” he said. “You’ve done more than enough.”

Weiss and Yang nodded, but Ruby wanted to curl up into herself to stop the knot in her stomach.

“May I speak with you, Miss Rose?” Ozpin asked. “Alone, for a minute.”

Ruby looked at her team and then back to her headmaster. “Un, sure,” Ruby said. “I’ll see you guys on campus.”

They nodded and started heading out of the camp.

Ozpin turned to Ruby. “Are you alright?” he said.

“Yeah,” Ruby said. “Aura got a little low, but it’s nothing a good night’s sleep won’t fix.”

“That’s good,” Ozpin said. He leaned on his cane and sighed in relief.

“How about you?” Ruby said.

“Me?” Ozpin said.

“I don’t really know what’s going on, but it seemed a little tense in there,” Ruby said. “You know, with Weiss’s sister and the cops and all…”

Ozpin nodded. “James… General Ironwood, informed me that something like this could have happened months ago, but I didn’t take him seriously. They feel like I could have prevented this if I had just pushed for the council to look into it more, and frankly, I don’t disagree.”

“But you do so much!” Ruby said.

“Not as much as I would like,” Ozpin said.

“You train Hunters! The best Hunters in the world.”

“Sometimes I wonder if Hunters are all it takes anymore,” Ozpin said. He sighed and turned to the youngster. “The world is slipping into a darker place, Miss Rose. The next generation is going to have to step up to roles that I wish they wouldn’t have to.”

Ozpin fell silent for a moment, he then looked Ruby in the eye.

“I’ll be counting on people like you, Miss Rose.”

Ruby looked up at her teacher sadly smiling at her. It was the first time he didn't look like a mentor. Instead, he looked like he was pleading to her.

Ruby smiled and nodded.

After Ruby promised that if she needed anything she would contact him immediately, he walked away back to the command tent with his cane.

Ruby looked down at the edges of her cloak. The fabric was torn up and frayed from the fight. Ruby sighed and started walking through the camp.

As she walked by the recovery crews, medics and officials around her, Ruby was pretty sure she knew where to find the exit, but she still had to make her way through the maze of tents. Alone the way, she heard a voice.

“Yeah, Mom,” he said. “I’m here. Yeah. We contained it before anyone got hurt.”

Ruby looked over. Jaune was standing nearby talking on his Scroll. He made eye contact with Ruby and nodded. She leaned against a post and waited for his conversation to end.

“Atlas and Vale’s forces are on the ground here,” he said. “We were their support in the containment and cleanup. Yeah. Basically.” He laughed at something she said. “Already? Well, that sucks.” He nodded. “Just some damage. No one died. Only lost a few bots. It’s a small breach. You’ve seen much worse in the settlements I’m sure.

“Of course. Just the formation you told me to take.” Jaune laughed again. “Yeah, they were great. I don’t know if I can make it home this week though. There’s been some talk about grounding all air traffic, and… well, things are a little weird here right now.

“Yeah,” Jaune said, talk to you later. Yep. Love you, bye.”

Jaune hung up his Scroll and Ruby walked up to him. 

“Hey,” Ruby said.

“Hi,” Jaune said.

They stood in silence, looking at the swarm security troops trying to make order out of this mess.

“Was that the first time I’ve seen you fight Grimm?” Ruby asked.

“Yeah,” Jaune said.

“That’s right. We haven’t done any field work together yet.”

Jaune nodded. “Just sparring so far.”

Ruby looked at Jaune’s weapon. “It was pretty badass, dude,” she said.

“Thanks,” Jaune smiled. “Can’t wait to see you in a serious fight one of these days.”

“You just did,” Ruby said.

“With your Crescent Rose,” Jaune said. “This didn’t count, and neither do the team fights.”

“Well I won’t disappoint you,” she said.

An Atlas Paladin mech stomped by the tent they were standing next to. It clanked towards the center of the camp carrying additional supplies on a pallet. The breach was being reinforced by military construction crews, and another wall of fences was going up to increase defense.

“So what do you think is going to happen?” Ruby asked.

“Who knows,” Jaune shrugged.

“I don’t think they could cover this up even if they wanted to,” Ruby said.

“Oh yeah,” Jaune said. “Someone took a video of the whole thing and put it on the CCTS network.”

Jaune pulled up the video on his Scroll. It showed the explosion and Grimm climbing out of the breach. It honestly looked much worse and chaotic on video than it was in real life. It was edited down to look like the Grimm spread a lot more than they actually did, and didn’t show the Vale forces or Hunter students fighting back.

“They think that hacker, Queen, released it,” he said. “People on the network are freaking out, and I don’t blame them.”

Ruby wanted to disagree but nodded. “This is going to be a big deal isn’t it?”

“There hasn’t been a breach in one of the Kingdoms since the Great War right?”

“Yeah,” Ruby said.

They looked over at the breach. The Vale crew finished adding reinforcements to cover the hole and were making way for two Atlas mechs to join the guard. The first Paladin transformed into its combat form, primed and ready just in case the breach showed any weakness. Spotlights kicked on and lit up the area. With several Dust cannons aimed at the entrance, Vale was obviously safe, but it didn’t feel that way to Ruby and Jaune.

Grimm snarled under their feet, just loud enough to hear over the mech’s engines.

 

* * *

 

Ruby leaned over the balcony overlooking the lobby of Beacon’s library. A massive skylight against the angled ceiling in front of her let her look down at the city and ocean below the academy. Earlier that school year she tried to spot Patch from this spot, but it was way too overcast to try that today.

It was late morning the day after the breach. She looked down at the lobby. No students or faculty were in sight. Most had left for winter break or to be with family after the breach. Ruby and her team were stuck at Beacon though. Weiss and Blake didn’t really have anywhere to go, and Vale was on lockdown because of the attack, meaning they couldn’t make it to Patch. Dad called her late last night once he’d seen the news. She told him that they were fine, after downplaying everything a little. Hopefully, he wasn’t too worried.

All morning Ruby didn’t know what to do with herself. Ozpin was right, it was up to her, her team and the next generation of Hunters to help right the world, but for now, she just felt so helpless. It took so long just to kill a handful of Grimm. With Crescent Rose, she could have torn through dozens more before Amber showed up, but instead, all she could do was try to keep them corralled, just one change and she was helpless. She inhaled sharply and felt her stomach. 

Ruby calmed her breathing and looked to her left. Blake was walking up to her and she hadn’t heard her footsteps until she got close.

“Oh hey!” Ruby said. “You look rough.”

Blake had bags under her eyes and frankly didn't look her best. Understandable considering the battle they had yesterday. “Sorry, I didn't get much sleep last night,” Blake said. “Where have you been all morning?”

“Just training,” Ruby said.

“Getting toned?” Blake said.

“I’m more than toned,” Ruby said.

Blake poked Ruby’s arm under her long sleeves as Ruby flexed. “Only the chosen can see your muscles I see,” Blake said.

“You’ve seen them,” Ruby said. “You want a show right now? Scandalous. I’m a hypocrite though because I do like peaking at your abs whenever I want.”

“If you got it, show it off,” Blake said.

_ Looks like Yang’s rubbing off on her _ , Ruby thought.

“Hey, I’m not complaining,” Ruby said as she slowly walked behind her girlfriend. “Honestly I hope people get a little jealous.”

Blake sat down in a nearby chair and blushed.

Ruby smirked. She liked teasing her. She hadn't picked up on it until recently, but Blake’s cool exterior could be broken in funny ways.

“Now I’m scared to go to Patch,” Blake said.

Ruby hopped up to sit on the back of the chair behind Blake and leaned over her. “How come?”

“You and Yang are bad enough, but the thought that there’s three of you is horrifying.”

“Don’t worry,” Ruby said. “He’s only full of bad dad jokes. And he’s great, you’ll love him.”

Ruby wrapped her arms around Blake from behind and leaned her chin on Blake’s head, resting in the middle of the bow.

“You’re going to love it on Patch,” she said. “Assuming we ever get there. The forests are gorgeous in the winter, and it should snow sometime soon. That being said, we should definitely go back during summer because we have some pretty nice beaches too. Plus, there's plenty of places to train, we have some great equipment at the cabin and school.”

“That’s a change of heart,” Blake said. “So much for taking it easy.”

“We can’t stop now,” Ruby said. She looked back up out the window. She could see the breach camp from the library.

Ruby looked down at Blake. She seemed out of it today.

“What’s wrong, babe?”

Blake looked up at her girlfriend. “Babe?”

“Trying new stuff,” Ruby said. She leaned down and slowly kissed the side of Blake’s neck.

“Whoa!” Blake flinched and looked around. ‘We’re in public!”

“No one’s around,” Ruby said. She got up and stood in front of Blake. Ruby leaned down and kissed her, her hands on Blake’s shoulders. She kissed her a second time as her hands started to move down Blake’s body.

“What’s got into you today?” Blake said while taking a breath.

“Just happy to see you,” Ruby said.  _ My wonderful stress reliever. _

Ruby lifted her knee between Blake’s legs. She moved one of her hands up across Blake’s shirt and felt her breast, then leaned forward over Blake and kissed her again..

“Ruby…” Blake said.

Ruby moaned back and started kissing down Blake’s body.

“Ruby, I need to talk to you about something important,” Blake said.

“I can wait,” Ruby said. Her other hand started pulling at Blake’s belt.

“Ruby,” Blake said. She grabbed Ruby’s wrist and glared at her. “Now.”

Ruby looked up at Blake. She was serious.

“Oh shit,” Ruby said. She got up as Blake fixed her clothes. “Okay.” She took a seat in the chair next to Blake's. Now that she was snapped out of the moment, Ruby was embarrassed by how much she’d misread Blake’s mood.

“I don’t know how,” Blake said, “but Roman was either working for or with the White Fang.”

It took Ruby a moment. “What?!” She looked around and leaned in close to Blake. “We’re talking about the same guy, right? He’s human.”

“They’re not as picky about that as much as you’d think,” Blake said.

“Wait,” Ruby said. “OK back up. How do you know?”

“Remember those fake maintenance workers? I recognized one. She was part of the same squad I was in. If she’s here, if all of them are here, then this isn’t over. Something big is going down.”

“You think that all of Roman’s heists started because he’s doing it for the White Fang?” Ruby said.

“It would explain why he shifted to that kind of work here in Vale in the first place,” Blake said. “Think about it. If the White Fang started stealing a bunch of Dust, the councils would tear the Kingdoms apart to find them, but some guy making some heists over the course of six months isn’t as big as a problem, especially with most White Fang news coming out of Mistral these days.”

Ruby leaned back and thought about it. She wasn’t sure, but she trusted Blake, and the misdirection made sense, it just didn’t make sense that they would cause a breach. That wasn’t the White Fang’s style. But Blake wasn’t the type to bring this up unless she was sure. “Did this White Fang person… did she recognize you?”

“I don’t think so,” Blake said. “We didn’t know each other that well...”

“Good. I don’t want them finding you.”

“I’ll be fine,” Blake said. “I doubt they’ve been looking this long anyway.”

“They probably don’t like detractors,” Ruby said. “Extremists are like that.”

Blake was quiet. “Yeah,” she said. ‘They are…”

Ruby looked at Blake. This revelation that the White Fang was operating so close must have shaken her worse than she'd realized.

“What do you need me to do?” Ruby said.

 

* * *

“Think about it,” Ruby said. “Roman makes no sense.”

“But neither do the White Fang,” Weiss said.

Ruby and Blake had gone back to their dorm room and were explaining the situation to their team. The door was closed, and Blake and Ruby were sitting on one bed with Weiss and Yang on the other. Ruby and Blake had told them that Blake recognized a Faunus she used to know that joined the White Fang, omitting some key facts that made the story more plausible, but Ruby would find a way to convince them somehow.

“Jaune said that Queen was the one who released the breach footage, and they’ve worked for the White Fang plenty of times,” Ruby said.

“White Fang’s pretty open about claiming attacks though,” Yang said. “Also, why are they in Vale of all places. Could it be a rogue group?”

“I don’t know,” Ruby said. She knew that Blake would know their tactics and trusted her judgment. If Blake says the White Fang are behind this, then Ruby would trust her teammate. “But if we can get ahead of this we could actually do some good.”

Yang and Weiss looked at each other. They were skeptical, but...

“I’m down,” Yang said after a moment. “If these guys did this then I want them to hurt.”

“No. This is stupid,” Weiss said. “If you think you have something then call the police. Why haven't we told Ozpin about this? You should have told them yesterday, Blake!”

“If the police get involved then they’re going to know that someone’s on to them,” Blake said. “They probably already have informants.”

“So let’s confirm it first at least,” Ruby said. “We never just called the cops on Roman.”

“There’s a difference between what we thought were some Dust thieves, and psychopath terrorists!” Weiss said. “And besides, not calling the cops is what got us in this mess in the first place!”

“When we busted into Atlas to save you we didn’t call the cops, and that couldn’t have worked out better,” Ruby said.

Weiss humphed.

“Blake’s right,” Ruby continued. “They’ll probably know when the police or the military are after them, how else have the White Fang been around so long! But a small group of Hunter students? They’re not going to see that coming.”

Blake was silent. Yang did a face that said, “She’s got a point.” And Weiss quietly thought about it, annoyed that she was thinking about it.

“We got this!” Ruby said. “We’re Team RWBY. We’re like, unstoppable.”

Weiss looked up at Ruby. After a moment, she said, “Fine.” She sighed. “You’re going to get us killed at this rate. What’s the plan?”

Ruby started talking strategy with her team. How they would sneak out with their weapons later tonight and start following some leads that Blake had already worked out. Blake turned towards the window and lowered her eyes. She clenched her fist to distract herself from how suffocating the bow on her head felt.  



	15. The Confession

Yang adjusted the night vision binoculars to focus in on the warehouse. She and her team were hidden on a rooftop in the rundown end of the industrial district. It was late at night, and the overcast sky covered the city in a blanket of darkness which made incredible cover for RWBY’s sneaking mission. The warehouse looked empty except for two loiterers guarding the entrance. One had puma ears, and the other was picking her incredibly sharp canines with a toothpick.

“You sure this is the right place?” Yang asked Blake who was crouched next to her on the rooftop. She looked up from the binoculars and squinted with her natural eyes. Not making out anything from the dark warehouse. Sure, the Faunus were suspicious, she thought, but she wasn’t sure.

“Look up at that electrical tower a block north of the warehouse,” Blake said.

Without the night vision, Yang could see the tower, but there wasn’t anything special about it. She looked with the binoculars and even then didn’t see anything. But after a second she spotted a reptilian figure lurking near the top, as a lookout for anyone approaching the warehouse.

“And the roof to the south-west, next to the pipes,” Blake said.

Another Faunus was casually sitting on the roof, keeping an eye out on the streets around the warehouse. They spoke into their radio and went back to watching the area.

Yang ducked down beneath their rooftop cover. “Ok, I see what you mean,” Yang said. “How did you spot them all so fast?”

Blake raised an eyebrow.

_Right, night vision. Always forget about that,_ Yang thought.

“If they’re really White Fang, them being here does support your idea that they were behind the breach,” Yang said. “Still feels off though.”

“I know…” Blake said.

“How did you know there where going to be here?” Yang asked.

Blake shrugged. “You have your shady contacts, and I have mine.”

_So that’s what that feels like,_ Yang thought.

Yang and Blake made their way to the other side of the roof where Ruby and Weiss were hiding.

“So what’s the plan, geniuses?” Weiss said.

“We need to get in closer and find a way in,” Blake said.

“Heh, if that place is full of White Fang, you’re crazy,” Weiss said.

“We need proof,” Blake said. “Assuming they are storing Dust, if we can get some of it we can see if it is from any of the shipments that Roman took, and _that_ we take to Ozpin.”

Yang looked at Ruby. “What do you say, sis?”

Ruby looked at her three teammates. “Blake’s plan,” she finally said. “We sneak up close, try to find a way in, get some Dust and run.”

Yang nodded and handed the binoculars to Blake. “Lead the way then,” she said.

Blake looked at Ruby who nodded and together they all started heading of the roof while Weiss mumbled about all of them getting killed under her breath as she followed close behind.

They all started sneaking through a narrow street close to their target. The buildings towering over them were abandoned and boarded up concrete structures with metal pipes and electrical cables webbing across and combining them. The warehouse was right around the corner, this was the best place to get close and still avoid getting spotted by all the lookouts. They just needed to make it down the road and spy around the corner to see if there were any other guards on the ground they had to keep an eye out for before trying to find a way in.

It was impossible to see clearly in the dark. There were no electrical lights, so their only guide was Blake's figure leading the way.

Blake suddenly stiffened. “Aura!” she yelled and activated her Aura.

Ruby, Weiss, and Yang reflexively activated in less than a second before four electric Dust rounds hit all four of them, damaging their Aura’s.

Yang peeled her eyes, trying to see their attackers but couldn’t see anything in the shadows.

“Weiss!” Ruby yelled.

“On it!” Weiss spun her Dust cartridge onto fire Dust and stabbed the street floor. A glyph momentarily appeared as red glowing Dust filled it, a glyph pattern spread through the ground and walls around them and combusted into orange flares.

Yang shielded her eyes from the sudden bright light before it died down into a soft glow, lighting up the area. Yang looked up, finally seeing what Blake’s night vision had spotted. They were surrounded by a dozen Faunus, some on pipes spread along the walls and some standing in the darker shadows of the alley, all armed with stun guns.

Ruby charged first. Blasting through one of their assailants before they could react. The Faunus all charged up their Auras and started attacking her. Ruby caught another off guard and quickly shred through their Aura, taking them out of the fight. Ruby went for another, but he blocked Crescent Rose with a dagger and parried, putting her on the defensive as two other Faunus started attacking her with their own knives.

The rest of the Faunus not near Ruby started shooting at the rest of her team. Yang charged past the Dustfire to get in close. Blake used her shadow clone to take a bunch of bullets, only to appear within the Faunus's ranks and started fighting up close. And Weiss luckily got a glyph shield up to defend herself.

With most of the Hunters-in-training up close, it was too risky to open fire within their own ranks, forcing them to fight melee; putting Yang and her team at an advantage.

Yang blocked an attack with her left gauntlet and punched another Faunus with her right. She assessed her attackers. So far they hadn’t used any Semblances, either they didn’t have any, or they weren’t taking them seriously. Yang prayed for the later. But her attackers looked tough. All of them seemed ready to fight at a moment's notice, except for one. He hesitated with every move and stayed back when other Faunus would charge in to attack them. _Good as any place to start,_ Yang thought.

Yang pushed her way out of the fight and charged the hesitating Faunus. Ruby came in behind her and started fighting the White Fang that Yang just split off from.

The guy freaked out at the sight of Yang charging him and started to run, but Yang grabbed him and threw him against the ground in a small alley between the buildings to the side of the fight. He climbed up the side of an electricity box before Yang grabbed him and pinned him against the alley wall.

She shot a shotgun blast against the bricks next to his head.

“Where’s Raven Branwen?!” Yang said.

The Faunus trembled. “I don’t know who that is!” he stammered. Yang moved to pull something out of her jacket. “Just don’t hurt me! I was only--”

Yang showed him the photo of a masked Raven with some White Fang leaders. “Where is she?”

The Faunus looked at the photo. His face turned from fear to confusion. He looked up at Yang. “The Bandit?”

A Faunus woman came around the corner into the alley to save her fellow soldier. Yang let him go and punched her, sending her flying out across the street. Yang leaped back at the Faunus she was interrogating and held him back up against the wall by the collar.

“Who’s The Bandit?!” she screamed.

“She’s Khan’s right hand,” he said. “Need something done she sends in The Bandit. No one’s even seen her face, at least no one _I_ know.”

“Where?!” Yang said.

“I don’t know.” he whined.

Yang growled in frustration. She wanted to beat his head into the wall until he talked.

“Probably with Khan,” he said. “In Mistral or something. I have no idea, I swear.”

Yang punched him out and threw him to the ground before running back into the fight before her teammates realized she was gone.

The fight wasn’t going well.  Weiss was fighting a big lady wielding a giant pipe. Apparently, any discretion was out the window.  Weiss flipped to avoid a swipe, but the Faunus reached forward to grab her. Weiss blocked her grab with a glyph and rolled away before sending blasts of Dust from a new glyph to send the Faunus staggering backward.

Yang ran up behind two Faunus and bashed their heads together. She sprinted to her sister and started fighting back to back against the rest of the remaining opponents. Overall, they’d worked through half of their Faunus assailants, but the last few they were going up against were turning out to be pretty skilled. Yang blocked a knife, shotgun punched another Faunus’s gun out of their hand along with a chunk of their Aura. She dodged a stab to the side of the head. _Holy shit, he tried to stab me!_ she thought.

Yang couldn’t help but notice that Ruby was at a disadvantage. She works best when she has room to move, Yang thought, and the narrow road didn’t give her much to work with. Weiss was similar, who worked best at a distance. It was bad for both of them but for Yang and…

“Ruby!” Yang yelled. “Where’s Blake?

Ruby finished blocking an attack and countering by hitting the Faunus to the ground. She looked around. Blake was gone. At some point in the chaos, she’d  straight up vanished. “Did she go into the warehouse?” Ruby said.

“Why would she do that alone?” Yang said.

Ruby’s face paled. “...oh no.”

Ruby vanished in a burst of petals and sped down the road towards the warehouse. She shot the garage shutter and blasted through inside without slowing down.

“Ruby!” Yang called. She couldn't get away from the fight. She couldn’t leave Weiss behind either.

_What the hell is going on?_

 

* * *

 

Blake slowly lifted her head and peaked above the crates she was hiding behind. A couple of Faunus were trying to figure out what had gone wrong outside as they headed for the entrance to investigate. That afternoon, Blake checked out old White Fang hideouts in Vale until she found one still being used. The warehouse had been repurposed into a secret hangar for hidden White Fang airships. There were four small cargo ships covered in tarps in front of Blake. The roof was modified to open up for the ships to fly out at any moment, and overlooking the makeshift hangar, was a suspended office with metal stairs leading up to it. From her hiding place, she looked through the office’s window and could see Adam pacing as someone reported to him on the radio.

He looked alone.

Blake snuck around to the base of the stairs, now out of sight of the office. Quietly, she crept her way up them, her footsteps silent and slow. One step was too loud, and a soft metallic clank filled the warehouse.

Blake froze.

When no one sounded the alarm, she risked another step. Eventually, she continued and silently moved up the rest of the stairs.

Blake arrived at the top and leaned against the wall next to the office door. She reached for the doorknob and listened. She could only hear bits of the conversation, but Adam sounded the exact same as he did when she last saw him. Blake pulled out Gamble Shroud and transformed it into its gun form. As soon as she heard the soldier on the other end of the radio speak, she turned the handle and rushed into the office, weapon drawn.

Adam turned and drew his sword. Blake and Adam made eye contact with their weapons pointed at each other. The Faunus on the radio was still speaking.

“Blake?” Adam said.

She kept Gambol pointed at him and closed the door behind her. She motioned at the radio. Adam looked down. The Faunus had finished talking and was expecting an answer from their commander.

“Notify me as soon as you detain them,” Adam said and turned off the radio. He set it down on the desk and slid it away from him, still holding his sword out. Blake went over to the window and closed the blinds, eliminating the risk of prying eyes.

“Hello, Blake,” Adam said. “Long time no see.”

“Hey, Adam,” Blake said.

“So… the gun?” he said.

“It’s been a weird couple of days,” she said.

Adam shrugged. He looked at the bow on Blake’s head and then back down at her.

“Changed your look?” he asked.

“Civilian targets?” Blake took a step forward. “Grimm in the city? Hiring Roman? Are you insane?!”

Adam’s eyes widened. “How did you know that?” he said. The concern in his voice betrayed his usual calm and aloof persona. Blake was planning on pressuring him more, but out of all the possible reactions, she didn’t expect to see him panicked. “It’s very important that you tell me how you know that,” he said. “There can’t be leaks on this operation.”

Blake hadn't planned on answering questions. She'd tricked her friends into this mission to draw everyone away from Adam, but this was a lot more of a conversation than the interrogation she imagined. “Ilia was at the breach site minutes before the blast,” she said. “Also, one of your oldest plans was opening up the Mountain Glenn tunnels and using them for a tactical advantage, so it wasn’t that big of a leap.”

“That’s it?” Adam said.

“Yeah,” Blake said.

“Thank god,” Adam gasped in relief. He sheathed his weapon and relaxed his shoulders.

Blake lowered Gambol Shroud. "What is going on?”

“Why do you think she was there, Blake?” Adam said. “Do you really think we would cause a breach and not make every precaution to make sure that the very abundant Vale and Atlas forces in the area would be able to contain it before many casualties? We even sounded the Atlas ship’s and Beacon’s breach alarms a full minute before the blast to give them a head start.”

“So you’re saying this is like the Vacou settlement mission?” Blake asked.

“Just at a much larger scale,” Adam said.

Blake relaxed but laughed nervously. “Oh yeah, just a larger scale,” she said sarcastically. “I leave for a year, and we go from derailing trains to manipulating the entire Atlas military?”

“It’s been a crazy couple of months,” Adam said.

Blake didn’t believe this. She’d heard that Adam was rising in the ranks, but this was high-level shit. When they faked a breach to draw out a Hunter at a Vacuo settlement, it was nothing serious, and they took care of it. But this was different. _What the hell do they need the Atlas military for?_

“So,” Adam said, “I assume that the problem out front is your doing?”

“I thought for a minute that you went crazy!” Blake said. “Of course I brought backup.”

“Your backup is… Beacon students.” He looked at the bow again. “So that’s where you’ve been this whole time…”

Blake gritted her teeth.

“You know… abandoning us was bad enough, but you didn’t have to join up with the enemy,” Adam said.

“You have no idea what I’ve been doing,” Blake snapped.

“You’re right,” Adam said. “I don’t know anything because you just disappeared one night. Do you even know how long Ilia looked for you!”

“I didn’t ask for you guys to try to find me,” Blake said. That wasn’t fair and she knew it. One night after they hijacked a train, pretty routine stuff, she walked away from the camp. The third time that week that she made the same walk, thinking she should just keep going and not turn back. That night she actually did it; as far as she knew, never to see her old friends again. Never seeing Adam. Never seeing Ilia. Without a word she disappeared like a shadow.

Adam could see through Blake’s bullshit. “Okay,” he said. His tone had slipped from surprise, and after a year, the anger at her leaving started to well back up. He looked over at the radio. “Turns out you haven’t gotten over your old habits.”

Blake flinched. She wasn’t abandoning her friends. They were just a distraction.

Adam tried to calm down his anger. “Why did you leave?” Adam asked. “If anything you owed Ilia an explanation. She was your girlfriend for god’s sake.”

“I’m sure you guys didn’t need me to blow up some trains every couple of weeks.”

“I remember us doing a lot more rescuing Faunus from trains than blowing up shit, but sure,” he said, “we managed.”

“I thought I could do more good working for them,” Blake said. “Save some Faunus without having to sneak around.”

“And change the system from the inside while you’re at it?”

“Why not?”

“Did you forget about the last sixty years of us trying to do that? Protest after protest, and broken promise after broken promise for decades, and nothing changed. Khan took over and under her leadership, the Faunus have gained more civil rights in the last five years than the last century,” he said. “You know what, I didn’t want to believe it but Ilia was right.”

“Right about what?”

“That you left because you are a coward,” Adam said.

“Don’t you dare,” Blake said. “Don’t you dare call me that, Adam!”

“You couldn’t handle getting your hands dirty, so you ran because you were scared!”

“I was _tired!_ ”

The argument ended. Adam didn’t say a word as Blake stood there in silence her head hung in shame.

“I got…” she finally spoke, “so _tired_. I got tired of seeing everything the humans did to us. I got tired of fighting. I got tired of killing them back. I just… I even told someone that I joined the Hunters because I felt guilty about what I did while I was White Fang. She’s human, real easy for her to believe that. I don’t feel guilty about what we did, Adam. I joined the Hunters because I felt guilty about leaving you guys. I was wrong. I knew I was wrong. But I couldn't face you or… Especially not after what I did to Ilia. But now I’m just… I’m sick of being around humans. I’m sick of hiding, I’m sick of smiling through their bullshit, I’m sick of all of it.”

Adam didn’t say a word. He opened his mouth, but closed it and hardened his stare at Blake. “Not all of them can put on a bow and walk away, Blake."

Blake clenched her teeth while staring at her feet.

“I don’t need you to do anything you don’t want to, but don't get in our way. Got it?”

“Adam…” Blake said. “I--”

The door to the office exploded with a burst of petals.

Ruby rolled into the room and time slowed down. Ruby hadn’t seen Blake yet, but she would see her as soon as she lifted her head. With reflexes that even shocked herself, Blake put Gamble Shroud in its machete mode and swung down on Adam. He drew his sword and blocked.

“Blake!” Ruby called out when she saw the fight.

Blake and Adam stared at each other. She looked up at him, pleading. He looked down; she expected disgust, but his eyes were understanding. He pushed back, grabbed Blake and threw her against the desk and charged Ruby as she rushed in to save her teammate. Ruby clashed with Adam’s sword, taken back at how strong his strikes were.

Blake charged in to attack in the side. He blocked but sliced right through her shadow clone. Ruby turned to find where Blake actually was. She was right next to her partner. Blake grabbed Ruby by the hood and jumped through the window with a crash.

Ruby, Blake and the shattered remains of the window crashed down a storey to the warehouse below. They hit the windshield of an airship, cracking it under the tarps which rolled off with them onto the ground.

Blake looked up. Adam was standing in the window staring down at them. They shared a glance.

Ruby pulled the tarp off of her and caught her breath while shaking glass off of her Aura.

Adam held up the radio. “Intruders made it into the main hangar,” he said. “Backup requested.”

“We got to go!” Blake said.

“But what about the…” Ruby started.

“Go!”

Ruby grabbed Blake and sped out of the building, leaving behind a couple petals fluttering down onto the cold concrete floor.

 

* * *

 

 

Adam looked up at Beacon from the roof of the warehouse an hour after the students tried to sneak in. The green glow from the CCTS tower spread across the clouds and seemed to flow down into the city like a mist.

He’d sent a squad out to try and capture the team of Hunters-in-training. He knew they would get away, but Blake’s eyes said it all. “Please keep up appearances, Adam,” she might as well said. So he did.

After all this time, he’d gone through what their conversation would be like countless times and in the end, he could only show his anger. He called her a coward; practically called her a traitor.

He owed her more than that.

 

_“I want to come,” Blake said._

_It was four years ago. A younger Adam looked down at the determined teenager looking up at him._

_“You are helping,” Adam said._

_“I want to help fight!”_

_“You’re just a kid,” he said._

_“I’m thirteen, jerk.”_

_“Tiny child.”_

_“Adam...”_

_He smirked._

_“I’m serious, Adam,” Blake said._

_He looked down at her. Her eyes said that she wasn’t asking. Yeah, she was serious._

_“It’s not very safe, Blake.”_

_“I know,” she said._

_“This is a little different than holding up signs, kid,” Adam said. “This is war.”_

_“Then teach me,” Blake said._

 

Blake’s eyes were always the easiest thing about her to read. She was a quiet kid, but she could hardly ever hide anything. In her eyes, he saw her unbridled optimism, hope, and determination. She didn’t say much, but she always seemed the most dedicated to the cause. It was that dedication that made it so shocking when she vanished.

_What the hell did I do to that kid?_ Adam thought. At what point? What mission was it? The first one? The third? What point did he start looking at her like she was just a soldier?

“The intruders got away once they regrouped,” one of Adam’s soldier reported.

He snapped out of his reminiscing. He didn’t have the time. He turned to the other Faunus. “We're done here,” he said. Adam started walking toward the roof exit. “This base has been compromised. Order everyone to fall back out of Vale for now, and meet up with the main force.”

Before Adam descended from the roof, he stole one more glance at Beacon and then turned and moved forward.

 

* * *

 

Ruby and her team fell down all over their dorm room when they got back. Before she’d realized, they’d rushed all the way back to the school, which was almost as exhausting as the fight they just escaped from. Yang was sitting on the mattress trying to catch her breath, Weiss and Blake were slumped over by the beds on the floor, and Ruby was sitting against the bedpost.

“Just checking again,” Ruby said. “Is everyone okay?”

“Yeah…” everyone said. All their Aura’s were going to have to recover after the battle. Luckily they got away when they did. Ruby had rushed out of the warehouse, and as soon as Weiss and Yang spotted them, they all started running for their lives back to Beacon.

Weiss caught her breath and looked over at Blake. “So where the hell did you sneak off to?”

“I was trying to get some of that Dust we were after,” Blake said.

“So did you?” Weiss asked.

Blake fell silent. “No.”   

“Then what was the point?!” Weiss yelled.

Blake looked away and Ruby sighed. This sucked. Yang looked fine though. Even though she took out most of those guys in the fight, she looked energized enough to go another round but was quietly making a note on her Scroll.

“Okay,” Weiss said. She stood up and pulled out her Scroll. “Time to call this in. We are way in over--”

Blake grabbed Weiss’s wrist. Ruby and Yang jumped in surprise, and Weiss looked at her teammate in shock.

“We still don’t have any proof that they were behind the attack,” Blake said.

“What?” Weiss said. She ripped her hand out of Blake’s grip. “We found a squad of White Fang in Vale. Who cares about evidence? I don’t need your permission to turn in a bunch of murderous terrorists just because you want to keep your stupid secret.”

“They are _not_ murderers,” Blake said.

“Tell that to every Atlas soldier they’ve butchered,” Weiss said.

“Maybe because your people were killing them like animals,” Blake said.

“A few scumbags don’t give your people the right to act like a bunch of savages,” Weiss said.

Blake snarled. Ruby recognized that she was probably too close than anyone needed to ever be to ripping out Weiss’s throat.

“Okay,” Ruby said. She stepped between the two of them and pushed them apart. “We’re tired. It’s been a long day… Blake, can I talk to you for a minute?”

“But what about the--” Weiss said.

“Weiss,” Yang said. She nodded to Ruby. She’d talk to Weiss while Ruby and Blake went outside.

Ruby and Blake went out into the hall and closed the door behind them. They took a couple steps out of their team’s hearing range. “Ok,” Ruby said. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Trying not to get us in trouble,” Blake said.

“No, nonono, I get that. In general, Blake. What the hell?”

“What do you mean?”

“I get you have a lot of issues but abandoning your team for your own personal vendetta mission isn’t cool, Blake.”

“Oh come on.”

“You brought this to me,” Ruby said. “Because this is important. Did you forget that this is important?”

“It… It’s not a revenge thing,” Blake said.

“Ok,” Ruby said. “I believe you. But you’re still acting weird.”

“I’m fine,” Blake said.

“No you’re not,” Ruby said. “Are you like… emotionally compromised?”

“What does that even mean?” Blake said. “You’re the one who jumped on the opportunity to go attack the White Fang like a kid cutting in line at the arcade.”

“That’s because I’m trying to help save the Kingdom!”

“Oh my god,” Blake said. “We’re not saving anything. We're not that important.”

“We’re the next generation of Hunters, Blake,” Ruby said. “The world is becoming a darker place, and we have to be the ones to keep it on track.”

“On track of what? And why?”

“Because that’s our job,” Ruby said. “Because… you know. Keeping the peace and order and stuff.”

“Uhhuh,” Blake said.

“We stop the White Fang and we'll save people. I mean, Hunters have done a better job protecting Faunus settlements than the White Fang ever could.”

Blake rubbed her temples. “Damn it, Ruby. What even… It’s not about you,” she said. “I get it. You have some weird death wish, and that’s why you became a Hunter or something. But playing hero isn’t going to get you where you want.”

Ruby was taken aback. After all this time and that’s what Blake thought this was. “I want to become a Hunter to _help_ people.”

“You don’t know what you want,” Blake said. “You never did.”

“Don’t project on me!” Ruby said. “You just got here. I’ve been training for this my entire life. I wasn't the one who decided to become a Hunter on a whim!”

Both of them fell silent.

“Tomorrow we go to Ozpin,” Ruby said. “We’re tired, we’re mad, it’s been a long day.” She looked at Blake. “First thing in the morning. Okay?”

Blake looked at her leader. She nodded and started walking back to their room.

Ruby sighed. She was going to have to find a way to apologize tomorrow, but for now, she headed back to the room behind Blake to get a long night’s sleep before whatever tomorrow brought.

 

* * *

 

Ruby, Yang, and Weiss fell asleep pretty quick. The fight tired them out, and they were deeply unconscious. Blake wanted to sleep too. More than anything she wanted to curl up under her sheets and let herself deal with everything tomorrow.

But Blake knew she couldn’t do that. She set down the note for Ruby on the dresser and quietly closed the dorm room door behind her.

Blake walked off campus with a duffle bag slung over her shoulder, carrying some books, personal belongings, and Gambol Shroud sheathed at her waist. Everything she could take with her.

Late at night, there was barely anyone outside in the city, so she didn’t hide. There wasn’t really a reason to hide anymore. Blake walked across the Vale river bridge that connected the residential and commercial districts. She stood motionless in the middle. This was where she and Ruby stopped on their first date. She looked over the edge to the flowing water. If she remembered correctly, this was even the spot where Ruby kissed her. A sad smile briefly flashed across Blake’s face.

Slowly, Blake removed her bow and held it softly between her fingers and felt the silk with her thumb. She’d started wearing it when she got one too many looks once she first moved to Vale. It never fit just right, but after a week or two, she pushed past it. She met new people who didn’t know and who just accepted her for being her, and not some damn ears on her head.

Blake held her hand over the edge of the bridge and let the ribbon go. It floated through the air down under the bridge like the last leaf before winter. It softly hit the water’s surface and drifted further and further away from Blake.

Blake turned away and continued walking across the bridge. Whether they wanted her back or not, it was time she finally went home.


	16. Homecoming

Ruby woke up the morning after the fight against the White Fang to her shoulders killing her.  _ My Aura didn’t even break, so what the hell?  _ she thought. It was a lot brighter outside her window than what she was used to waking up to. She grumbled in frustration at being awake. Her eyes refused to stay open for more than a second, both from her being exhausted and from her stubbornly refusing to get up. She grabbed a pillow and snuggled into it, but everything that had been going on recently, the White Fang fight, the breach, Blake, all slowly seeped back into her mind when she just wanted the sweet escape of unconsciousness back. As physically sore as she was, the last few days were more mentally exhausting than anything.

Peeking down off the edge of the bunk bed, Ruby read the time on the clock on the desk: fifteen minutes after nine in the morning. “Damn it,” Ruby said. It wasn’t like her or her team to sleep in this late. She sat up and started moving towards the edge of the bed on her knees, too high up and bumped her head on the ceiling. “Ow,” she mumbled.

Ruby jumped down from her bed. Weiss was drooling all over her sheets, and Yang’s arm was hanging over the side of her own bunk. Ruby glared at the clock on the dresser.  _ Who the hell turned off the alarm? _ she thought.  _ I always set it. Did I? No, I did. I remember. _

Slowly dragging her feet, Ruby knocked on Yang’s bunk. “Morning team,” she said, thumping the post one more time.

Weiss sat up. Her hair was a tangled mess in front of her face as she pushed it up to see the room around her. “Damn it,” she grumbled.

Yang leaned over the bed and yawned. “Morning.”

“Hey,” Ruby said. Ruby looked over for Blake but no one was in her bed. “Is Blake in the bathroom or something?”

“Probably in the gym by now,” Yang said, climbing down.

_ Figures she would wake up on time and we wouldn’t, _ Ruby thought. Probably wanted to avoid all of them for a second. Ruby scratched an itch under her arm. She was going to have to get her to come with them when they reported what they saw to Ozpin. Hopefully, she wouldn’t take too much convincing.

Yang did some morning stretches by the dresser and Weiss got up out of bed, and in only a second no longer looked tired. It was a mystery that alluded Ruby for months how Weiss was able to pop out of bed like that. Ruby drank some water from a bottle she set aside and gulped it down like she hadn't seen a drink in a week.

“Hey, Ruby?” Yang said. 

“Yeah?” Ruby glanced over. Yang was holding something. It was a note for Ruby that had been left on the dresser. Weiss looked confused, and Yang had already read it but wasn’t sure what it meant.

Ruby walked over and grabbed the note. It was in Blake’s handwriting:

_     Sorry, Ruby. I won’t be able to make it to Patch with you and Yang. Thank you for helping me get through the last few months, but it’s about time I went back. Don’t hate me too much.  _

_     ~Blake. _

“What is that supposed to mean?” Weiss asked.

Yang looked at Blake’s shelf where she kept all her stuff.

“Oh no,” Ruby said. This couldn’t mean what she thought it meant right? There’s no way. Everything Blake had said about her past contradicted this, so why?

“Ruby, what does she mean?” Yang asked. Ruby followed Yang’s gaze over to Blake’s shelf. Why did it take her so long to notice? All of Blake’s few possessions, her clothes, her books, her weapon, all of it was gone. It almost looked like they’d never even had a fourth roommate during the last five months.

“No,” Ruby said. “No, no, no, no, don’t do this, Blake.” Ruby grabbed her Scroll from the dresser and dialed Blake’s number. Weiss got a hold of the note and reread it. Her eyes widened and also started looking for any of Blake’s stuff.

“Ruby?” Yang said. “Where’s Blake?”

They knew that Ruby knew something she wasn’t saying, and Ruby wasn’t even bothering to hide it anymore. The call didn’t connect. Only a message saying that Blake’s number was no longer in service. Ruby canceled out of the call and started dialing Ozpin’s number as quickly as possible.

“Ruby!” Yang said betraying a little panic. “What happened to Blake?”

“I didn’t…” Weiss stammered, “I didn’t mean to…”

Ozpin picked up the call, and before he could even speak, Ruby said, “Professor Ozpin?” she said. “Sorry it took me so long, but it’s about the breach and… it’s also about Blake.”

 

* * *

 

Ruby stood at the center of Ozpin’s office. The reverberating ticking gears of the Dust mechanism above her head made a constant pressure in the room that was only matched by the stares of the adults in front of her. The headmaster sat behind his large desk, carefully taking in everything that his student was reporting, the glare on his glasses hiding any emotion. Professor Goodwitch stood at Ozpin’s side, and General Ironwood, who Ozpin invited after hearing that it had something to do with the breach, was standing next to the large windows to Ruby’s right. She told them about the run in with the Faunus she and her team were pretty sure were White Fang, the failed plan to get some Dust, how trained the Faunus fighters were, and that after an argument last night, Blake disappeared.

“What was the nature of your argument?” Professor Goodwitch asked.

“It was about whether or not we should go to Headmaster Ozpin at all considering we had no proof,” Ruby said. “Going to you guys in the morning in a more casual setting was the compromise.”

“What on earth could have convinced you that something this potentially important should wait until morning?” General Ironwood asked.

Ruby started to lower her head in shame, but Ozpin stepped in, “At the time she was considering her teammate’s opinions as well as avoiding jumping to conclusions when faced with no solid evidence. I assume she has now learned that the mission takes precedent.”

Ruby nodded. She appreciated Ozpin jumping in and trying to justify her mistake, but it gave her too much of the benefit of the doubt. She didn’t report, despite their lack of evidence, because she’d become compromised. Blake was her girlfriend, so Ruby listened to her opinion more than the rest of her team. She’d failed as a leader.

“How do you know they were White Fang and not a common Faunus gang?” Professor Goodwitch asked.

“That Adam Taurus guy who’s been on the news: he was there.”

That got the professor’s attention. Ozpin and Goodwitch exchanged a worried look and Ironwood laughed nervously. “You’re lucky to be alive,” Ironwood commented.“Miss Rose, how did Miss Belladonna realize the White Fang’s involvement in the first place?”

“She recognized a Faunus near the plaza right before the breach that she used to know but joined the White Fang a while back,” Ruby said.

“And how did she know someone like that?”

Ruby hesitated. Before she had a chance to speak up, Ozpin said, “Miss Belladonna  _ is _ a Faunus, James.”

Ironwood turned towards Ozpin and raised an eyebrow. After a second he regained his composure and continued questioning Ruby. “Has Miss Belladonna ever suggested or have you ever suspected that she was a member of the White Fang?”

Ruby looked Ironwood in the eye. “No, sir.”

“Is it possible that she has been recruited?” Ironwood asked.

“I… it’s possible.”

Ironwood turned to Ozpin to silently suggest how dangerous this situation had become.

“We will look into any possibility of the White Fang’s presence in Vale and the possibility of their involvement in the attack,” Ozpin said. “I’m sure that you’ll assist, James.”

“Of course,” Ironwood said. “You and your team will be debriefed by Vale security about what happened last night. Understand?”

“Yes, sir,” Ruby said.

“You can go,” Ozpin said. Ruby nodded, and as dignified as she could, marched out of her headmaster’s office.

In the elevator back down to the school, Ruby clinched her fist.  _ Why, Blake _ ? she thought.  _ Why go back? _ It didn't make any sense. Ruby pulled out her Scroll and called Blake again. The number wasn’t available. 

Ruby made her way back to her dorm room. Weiss and Yang were waiting for her. Yang was leaning against the wall, and Weiss was standing in the center of the room. They’d gotten dressed and were silently waiting for their leader to come back. “So?” Yang asked.

“They’re going to look into the White Fang operating in Vale,” Ruby said.

“That’s it?” Weiss asked.

“We didn’t get the Dust so that’s all they can do,” Ruby said. Silence fell between the three of them. One less person and the room felt so much more empty. Ruby didn’t know what to do now.

“When were you going to tell us?” Yang asked.

“Tell you  _ what? _ ” Ruby said, a little annoyance in her tone.

“We talked about it,” Yang said. “Blake’s White Fang.”

Ruby flinched. “She left,” she said. “She… she said she left. I don’t get it.”

Weiss marched up to her leader and grabbed her by the collar. “You idiot!” she said. “You complete dolt!”

“Weiss,” Yang said to try to de-escalate everything.

“How long?” Weiss said.

“About two months,” Ruby said.

“Damn it, Ruby,” Weiss let go and rubbed her temple. “Did that little piece of information just not cross your mind when you considered ‘things about my day to tell my team!’ Maybe you should share with your teammates that their roommate used to hang out with killers!”

“So when she recognized the White Fang,” Yang said. “It wasn’t just someone she happened to know.”

“Yeah,” Ruby said.

“Both of you lied to us!” Weiss said. “Did you guys cross reference your lies just to keep messing with your partners! We’re your team, Ruby. What right do you have to keep that from us?”

“I promised her,” Ruby said. “It wouldn’t have been right to tell you guys after that.”

Weiss scoffed. “Team, my ass.” She crossed her arms. ‘You know… I always wondered what you two saw in each other, but you really are a pair aren’t you?”

“Weiss,” Yang warned again.

Weiss tsked and left the room.

Yang and Ruby stood still for a minute. Ruby didn’t have it in her to look over at her sister, not that Yang was looking back anyway.

“She’s not coming back, is she?” Yang finally said.

“I don’t think so,” Ruby said.

Yang punched the wall, sending out a burst of drywall across the carpet. “I wouldn’t have cared!” she said. “If she had just come to me and talked I wouldn’t have cared. But you two decided to hide it. What is _ wrong _ with you?”

Ruby turned to Yang. “You think you two are mad?” Ruby said. “I trusted her!”

“But apparently NOT US?”

“I promised I would keep it a secret.”

“We’re  _ family! _ ” Yang said. “You and me are the one thing that never changed. That never betrayed each other. That always stuck together no matter what. We always told each other everything! Because  _ we  _ look out for each other.”

“Oh please,” Ruby frowned. “Miss: ‘Not going to tell her sister about the odd jobs she does for some gangster she gets in bar fights with.’ Miss: ‘I’m going to become a Hunter and travel the world just in case I happen to meet someone who knows anything about Raven!’ She stepped towards Yang. “The most important family member to you is a woman who left you before you could even remember her!”

Yang looked at her sister. Her jaw was clenched, and she exhaled through her nose. She turned; walked over to the door and opened it.

Ruby stared forward, her gut sunk when she realized what she had said. “Yang…” Ruby said. 

Yang left the room without another word.

Ruby’s breathing got heavy. Her stomach felt like a snake was constricting across it. Crushing her. A sharp cold pain twisted at the center of that pressure. The room around her felt too large. Like she had suddenly been trapped at the bottom of a deep well. At Signal, she had felt this before. Right after her last partner suddenly ended things. And now, only half a year later, Ruby’s thoughts turned to the girl who had made her feel this way again…

_ Who the hell does she think she is? _ she thought through the static buzzing around her skull.  _ I trusted her, and this is how she repays me? _ Her teeth hurt from her clamped jaw. That pressure around her. In the past it made her feel helpless. Now, she wanted to tear out its fucking throat.

“Ahhrg,” Ruby growled through her teeth. She grabbed the edge of Yang and Blake’s bunk and tore it down to the ground. The beds toppled into a crumpled heap of splintered wood. Next was the dresser. With a sweep of her arm, she threw everything off. The books splayed across the floor, the console and lamp went flying, the framed photo fell on its corner when it hit the ground and glass scattered across the carpet.

_ She wasn't any different! _

This whole time, Ruby thought that Blake was better than that. That Blake wasn’t someone who would leave her. Someone who wouldn’t just take her feelings for granted and cast her aside like trash. Who would accept her for who she is. Who wouldn’t crush the feeling that she could be someone special.  It wasn’t the first time a partner who made her feel like an actual person just turned around and shattered her with no warning. After her breakup at Signal, she was able to put on a grin and move on to a different school; put it all behind her. But here, there was no place to run. And this time, Blake hadn't even given Ruby the dignity to tell her to her face.

_ You weren't special _ , Ruby told herself.  _ She played you just like she played Yang and Weiss. You’re just another idiot for her to screw with. _

Ruby stomped the bedframe, shattering it.

_ I trusted you! You lying BITCH! _

Ruby threw the chair by the desk across the room towards the door.

Ozpin was standing there, watching everything.

His Aura flashed as a transparent shield appeared in front of him. The chair smacked against it and harmlessly bounced onto the floor.

“Miss Rose!” He deactivated his Semblance and stepped into the room, his hand tightly gripped on his cane.

Ruby realized how hard she was breathing and gasped to calm herself down. She looked around the room; it was pretty bad. She tried to come up with a nonsensical justification for why she would destroy her dorm room like this, but came up empty.

“I’m sorry, sir,” she said.

“This type of tantrum is not appropriate for a student here, Miss Rose,” he said.

“Yes sir,” she said.

Ozpin sighed. “You’re not the only one to blame, Miss Rose,” he said. “When I put Miss Belladonna on your team,” he said, “I thought that she would be an excellent way to ground the group. I apologize for my short-sightedness.”

“No,” Ruby said. “She was great. Great partner for Yang. Complimentary.”

“And for you?”

“Yeah, great for me too.”

“I’d always assumed that Belladonna’s file inconsistencies had to do with her covering up her Faunus heritage, it’s happened before, and I understand, but maybe, overlooking those was a mistake.”

“So you’ve known longer than I have.”

“Since you became teammates,” Ozpin said. “Was there anything about her past that she mentioned that could shed some light?”

“She was really quiet,” Ruby said. “Never really opened up about it. It took her months before she even admitted she was a Faunus.”

“If there was anything…”

“I don’t remember,” she said. “Sorry.” Ruby didn’t know why she was still pretending. It would be so easy to rat her out. Hell, Weiss and Yang were probably going to the first chance they got. She’d betrayed Ruby. Lied to her. Left her. But, she still had that image, clear as a photograph, of the look on Blake’s face when she demanded that they dance by the fountain. The surprise, the concern, the joy. Ruby couldn’t bring herself to betray that image, even if Blake had.

Ozpin grew silent. “The history of humans and Faunus fighting is a long one. The White Fang is only the latest part of the cycle. The organization was created to help make peace after the Faunus Revolution. We’ve come so far, and it’s still happening. It’s almost like conflict between our peoples is inevitable. In the early days after the cataclysm. With only pockets of humans banding together to survive the Grimm onslaught, we first met the Faunus in those days, and it is understandable that humans would mistrust them. Everything was trying to kill us back then. Even after the Kingdoms were built and Hunters were created to fight back the Grimm, Faunus never really found a place in society.

“I’ve had students defect to the White Fang before,” Ozpin said. “Not for a long time. But it’s happened. That team broke apart as well.”

“What happened to them?” Ruby said.

“They moved on as best they could, but it was never the same. Each of the remaining members ended up going on more and more solo missions as time went on. Their team leader ended up dying on one.”

Ozpin stared out the window. The trees in the courtyard outside were bare of any leaves, the lawn had died from the cold at this point. “As important as the team is, my biggest regret was failing to make sure that they could handle it alone. That even without a team, they could still stand on their own two feet. But I didn’t, so when the team was broken… she fell too.”

Ozpin faced Ruby. She looked up at him as he spoke, “You’re special, Miss Rose. I don’t know if you know that.”

Ruby looked down at the wreckage of a room. “I don’t feel very special right now.”

“Greatness can’t rise without hardship,” Ozpin said. ‘I’d like to think that’s why this is happening to you.” He smiled and put a hand on her shoulder. “You will come out of this stronger than you can imagine. And I look forward to seeing it, Miss Rose.”

With everything that was happening today, Ruby had forgotten what was most important. She was here to become a Hunter. That was the goal. She’d lost track of that somewhere along the line. “Thank you,” Ruby said.

Ozpin nodded and slowly walked out of the dorm room supported by his cane.

Ruby inhaled and exhaled. She looked out of the window at the campus spread before her. If she was going to succeed, she was going to have to grow past this. She’d put her goal aside for far too long, and now nothing would stop her from becoming a Hunter.

Not even Blake.

 

* * *

 

General Ironwood and Winter Schnee’s boots clacked against the road of Beacon Academy’s center lane. She’d waited for him in the CCTS tower during his meeting with Ozpin and was now making their way to the landing pads at the east end of the campus. He walked a few steps ahead of his subordinate as he made a subtle adjustment to his right arm.

“How many Faunus do they have crawling around this school?” Ironwood said after he explained the situation regarding Team RWBY.

“The other Kingdoms don’t keep sufficient track of their Faunus,” Winter said. “It’s because of their shortsightedness that the White Fang survives.” Winter was not only an incredible member of his special forces but one of his greatest intelligent officers who had her own share of frustrations about how pathetic surveillance in the other three Kingdoms were compared to Atlas.

“Has the prisoner said anything?” Ironwood asked.

“No sir,” Winter said. “But it would fill holes in our information if he was hired by the White Fang.”

Torchwick had been incredibly uncooperative. His arrest at Mountain Glenn had been a little too easy, almost as if he’d let himself get captured. If it weren't for the high attention the general was receiving due to the case, he would have resorted to better methods of extracting information days ago. Torchwick was locked up on board the Atlas flagship, which was hovering just outside of the kingdom walls next to Beacon Academy. But while Ironwood was in Vale, with Vale’s prisoner, he would respect their rules on how to treat that prisoner, as ineffective as they were.

“Thank you for arranging the transfer,” he said to Winter.

“I assumed you would want to keep him as leverage,” Winter said. She was right. It was an excellent way to keep them involved in the breach fiasco's circle of influence.

“We need to deal with this White Fang problem immediately. Get me a meeting with the Vale security chief,” he said. “We need to start rounding up young Faunus… any of them that fit the standard profile: disillusioned with the system and easily seduced by the White Fang’s cause.”

“How young?” Winter asked.

“As possible,” Ironwood said. “You’d be surprised what they’ll do to prevent something like another breach. We’ll just remind them that our primary suspect is the White Fang and they still have enough stolen explosive Dust to cause ten more breaches like this.”

Ironwood and Winter walked up to the landing pads and looked up at the flagship. The rest of the fleet was arriving from Atlas overhead. Over a dozen ships ready to take on whatever Roman’s group or the White Fang could throw at them. A low hum from the airforce shook the city below. 

A small smile crept over Ironwood’s face. This was the first step in a permanent Atlas military presence in Vale. He would continue to support them until inch by inch there would always be an Atlas warship above their Kingdom.

 

* * *

 

Blake was sitting in a metal fold up chair while handcuffed in a dark storage container. She’d found the White Fang early that morning and was willingly captured. They took her weapon and searched her for a tracker, which Blake totally understood and honestly approved of their caution. She'd rode in the back of a truck all day with a bag over her head before they stuck her in here. Now she was waiting for someone to either let her out or tell her she’s going to be locked up for a long time. They’d agreed to take her to Adam, but who knew if they’d lied about that or not. Blake looked up at the ceiling. Luckily they got rid of the bag when they put her in here. Not that there was anything to look at in a dark metal box.

The container door opened, sending a ray of daylight onto Blake’s face. Blake winced and then looked at the figure standing in the doorway. She was dressed in black with a long brunette ponytail. Blake sighed sadly when she saw her.

“Adam says you paid us a visit last night,” Ilia said.

“Something like that,” Blake said.

“You could have called,” Ilia said.

Blake lowered her head. “How are things--”

“No,” Ilia interrupted. “Don’t even say that to me. As far as I’m concerned, you’re a traitor. You ran from the cause, and you ran from me.”

Blake looked at the ground. Ilia was right. Back when they were both in the White Fang, Blake and Ilia had been inseparable. From hiding behind cover in combat, to awkwardly holding hands on the quiet days, Ilia the support that Blake never expected to find in her life. And never would again.

“I need to know,” Ilia said. “Why a Hunter? They’re mercenaries for corporations, criminals, or the Kingdoms. You of all people know this.”

Blake looked at Ilia. She looked different, taller. Apparently, she’d risen in the ranks. Now  _ she  _ was Adam’s right hand. Crazy how much could change in a year. “You know how many Faunus die from preventable Grimm attacks. I thought that maybe, after running away I wouldn't be a complete waste out there.”

There was a silent moment between the two women. Ilia slowly walked over to Blake, reached down and roughly uncuffed her. “Adam’s orders,” she said. “He wants to see you.”

Ilia started walking away. Blake stood up and started following her out of the container.

Blake was standing in the largest White Fang camp she’d ever seen. They were surrounded by large ruins of office buildings and fallen skyscrapers overgrown by vines with red bark, all from before the cataclysm and far away from Vale. Deep in Grimm country. From the red dirt and grass, and the rocky crimson hills in the distance, Blake recognized Forever Fall anywhere from her own time spent camping out here with her own squad back in the day. Red camo tarps were stretched between buildings and posts, covering supplies and soldiers. As they passed one of the tents, Blake saw that inside was a large depot of Dust, already refined into ammunition.

Everywhere Blake looked there were Faunus moving around and preparing for a massive operation. Most of the members she’d never seen before, new recruits or members from all over Remnant coming together for something big. Although, several were from her old days with Adam. Their stares in her direction lasted longer than Blake appreciated.

Ilia also noticed the looks. “Behold, the prodigal daughter returns,” she said quietly. 

Blake held her head up. Now wasn’t the time to be slinking away again.

They reached a large tent made out of the red tarps. Ilia moved the flap up and walked in, Blake following after her. Adam, one of his lieutenants who’d been around even longer than Blake, and some other squad leaders were looking over some operation plans on a table. They looked up for a second at the newcomers but continued their strategy meeting, Adam being the last to look back at the table.

“Infiltration teams will go in first and draw out soldiers as needed--” Blake got a look at the plans. It was a detailed map of Beacon Academy. It had everything: their security systems, the list of all the faculty (janitors included), schedules, and which Atlas ships would respond first. Blake realized what they were planning. It was a pretty simple operation, just at a much larger scale than she was used to the White Fang doing. From what she could see, all the pieces were in place. All they had to do was spring everything into motion.

_ If they do this... _ Blake thought.  _ Oh my god, we could actually do this. _

“Blake,” Adam suddenly said. “Any inputs?”

Blake looked up and realized why she’d been let out of her box. He’d invited Blake because she could provide additional intel from her time at Beacon. Adam had taught her to judge and analyze the defensive capabilities of wherever she was, and she’d spent the last five months at Beacon. No wonder the White Fang brought her to the camp so quickly. It was on his orders. Adam didn’t want to throw away a resource who came walking back to him.

She pointed to a spot near the auditorium. “This area is more visible than you’d think. I would suggest putting your third team closer to the student center. Also, the dorm is the most defendable location so I would consider making that the last line of defense.”

The way that some of the other squad leaders were looking at her suggested they weren't going to listen to her suggestion, but Adam turned to his lieutenants, “Go through the routes again. I want this as quiet as possible before Queen’s program activates. Walk Blake through all the ground infiltration groups’ routes. They should be fine, but I want any advantage we can get.” He turned to her again. “Blake.”

“Yes, sir,” Blake said, quickly falling into old habits.

“You’re on my team,” he said. “Everything in this tent is need to know. Do not share any information of this operation with any other White Fang member.”

“Understood,” Blake said.

Ilia frowned. “It’s like she never left,” she mumbled.

The meeting ended and all the leaders headed out of the tent. Adam walked up to Blake, handed her Gamble Shroud, nodded, and left the tent.

Blake looked down at her weapon. She gripped it and followed behind.

Now that she was free to roam the camp, Blake wasn’t sure where to go. She guessed she would be staying in the barracks, but she wasn’t sure how welcome she would be. She thought for a second that they’d keep her in the crate until the operation, maybe even after the operation, but no one had said anything, so she assumed not.

“Hey kid,” A fist lightly came down on her head. “You zoned out there for a second.”

Blake looked up. Adam’s trusted chainsaw wielding lieutenant, Basil, had been standing next to her and had playfully hit her on the head, just like old times.

“You missed my last two cobblers,” he said.

Blake sighed. “Of all things,” she said.

“I make good food.” Basil grinned. “Well the last one I went a little overboard on the peaches, so maybe you didn’t miss out there.”

Blake looked down and her ears lay flat against her head. “I’m sorry, Basil. I shouldn’t--”

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“I--” Blake started. She looked up at her old friend. “I don’t know.”

Basil hugged her and ruffled her hair. “Good to have you back kid.”

Blake’s ears perked up in surprise. She sniffled, tears filled her eyes, and she hugged him back, pushing her face into his jacket. It’d been too long. Not all of them trusted her, she couldn’t blame them, but after everything, everything she left, everything she threw away… Blake was finally home.


	17. Fallout

Adam Taurus was at his desk studying the camp’s inventory reports. His private “quarters” was a tent off the side of the command center, which was more of a patchwork of red camouflage tarps but compared to how he’d operated in the past four years, it was practically a palace.

Everything was in place. Khan had supported his plan every step of the way, Roman and his crew (somehow) had done their jobs, and Blake’s additional intel on Beacon was small but appreciated. For the first time, he had a network and an army under his command. All that was left was for him to say the word and the operation would begin. But here he was, procrastinating by looking over the inventory reports himself. Khan gave him the best the White Fang had to offer with his mission, so looking over the reports was unnecessary.

After so much planning, it didn’t feel real. A small guerilla rebel leader like him about to accomplish something on this scale. It didn’t feel like it should be happening to him. Ilia said when he shared with her that Khan approved the operation, that he would be remembered by Faunus and humans forever.

Everything was ready, but it didn’t feel like he would ever be.

The electrical light on his desk flickered before it shut off. Behind Adam, the tent was filled with a dark red light. Adam turned around. A low whirr resonated through the air as the space at the center of his tent fluctuated like a ripple. A swirling black and red portal tore through its center. His small tent seemed to bend outward, the width of reality impossibly pushed out to account for the sudden appearance of the humming hole in the universe.

Adam sighed and folded his arms, waiting for his guest to appear. Whether she admitted it or not, even her Semblance was insufferably overdramatic.

A tall, dark haired woman dressed in red and black, her face obscured by a Grimm mask, stepped through the portal. She sheathed her crimson blade, and the swirling void behind her blinked out of existence. The tent snapped back to its natural state, and the electrical light flicked back on.

“You could always knock you know,” Adam said.

Back when she first started allying herself with the White Fang, whispers of a powerful ex-Hunter only known as “The Bandit” by her human targets. When she officially joined Khan’s White Fang, she embraced the title.

“What is the state of the operation?” she asked without a shred of emotion in her voice.

“Everything’s on schedule,” Adam said. “We’re getting ready to send the recording in an hour.”

“Good,” The Bandit said. “Send my contacts to the brothers after the job is done for their payment. I’ll meet them there after we wrap up the Mistral mission.”

Adam nodded. The Bandit was impossible to read through her mask. She and Adam worked together on a few operations; she was a good soldier, but despite his best efforts, she never fully trusted him.

“I trust you kept the operation confidential,” she said.

“Only the leaders of each squad know, no one knows what you and Khan are up to, and the rest will be briefed only on what is important for their individual missions.”

“There can’t be any leaks, Taurus,” The Bandit said.

“There are no leaks.”

Through her mask, the Bandit stared at Adam. “Then explain to me why Sienna Khan has heard about Hunter students finding your base in Vale,” she said. “If you can’t even keep a location confidential, I have concerns about the entire operation.”

“If Khan is unsure about my success, she can come down here and head it herself,” Adam said.

“You think _you’re_ the most important White Fang operation right now?” The Bandit said. “Khan put you in this position because you’re a loyal soldier and leader, but also because you’re expendable. She isn’t leading the charge in Vale because it’s too risky for someone as important as her.”

Adam sighed and raised his hands in defeat. He’d projected his insecurities immaturely. Khan was confident in him, it was unfair to accidentally challenge her, even if it was The Bandit who found him to be an untested element. “My apologies,” he said. “Please let Khan know that we got to the heart of that Hunter problem and there’s no danger on that front.”

The Bandit lifted her chin. “There better not be, Taurus.”

“Anyhow,” Adam stood up face to face with the Bandit. “I’ll make it up to you. We’re having lunch soon. Basil is making some curry, and it smells delicious. You could always join us.”

The Bandit ignored him. She turned around and walked towards the center of the tent, ready to rip open another portal.

“I don't think they would mind that you’re human,” Adam said.

“I don’t do this to make friends, Taurus,” she said.

“Okay,” Adam shrugged and leaned back on his desk. “See you around, Branwen.”

The Bandit tensed up and turned around to face him. He would have paid a lot to see the face under her mask right then. She put a lot into her mysterious background, and the only person in the White Fang who knew her identity was Khan herself, until now. But when one of your soldiers leaks some specific information to a young Hunter-in-training, you go digging. And what he'd found was interesting, to say the least.

Branwen grunted, annoyed at Adam’s smug grin. She drew her sword and slashed through the air to her side. A new red portal pulled the space she cut through into a doorway for her to travel back to Khan in Mistral. She turned away from Adam and walked through the portal, disappearing as quickly as she appeared.

Adam laughed to himself. It was satisfying after a year of listening to the Bandit call him “Taurus” over and over again to finally have a last name to throw back at her.

He looked at the report on his desk and pushed it to the side. There was nothing like a human telling him that he couldn’t handle it to get him motivated. Adam walked out of the tent to go see how long until Basil was done cooking that delicious curry.

 

* * *

 

Yang punched the sparring robot in its featureless face. Knocking it off balance, she kicked it in the side, before hitting it again twice in the body and finishing it off with an uppercut, sending it flying up before it crashed in a heap onto the stage. She made a quick turn to her left and headed for the next sparring robot. She was dressed in a black sports bra and grey sweats, going up against Beacon’s hardest freshman training program barehanded. She tore through another robot, punching it in the chest over and over until it collapsed. Her performance during this match had destroyed her previous records on this program as she tore through more sparring robots than they could throw at her.

“PROGRAM. END.” The electronic voice over the amphitheater speakers announced Yang’s victory.

Yang gasped for breath. She bent over and rested, holding herself up by leaning on her knees. After a long workout, she just needed to cool down for a second.

Her breathing echoed through the empty amphitheater around her.

Yang was alone. She exhaled heavily. Alone with her thoughts. She breathed over and over again to calm herself down.

During the breach, Yang didn't have time to breath. Whenever she risked it, a Grimm took another swipe at her Aura. She punched and kicked and clawed at Grimm with her bare hands. She had nothing to block or defend herself with; just frantically hitting them before they could hit her back. The entire fight, she’d survived on pure adrenaline. All her teammates had gathered makeshift weapons, keeping them just far enough away from the talons and maws of the monsters.

After the fight, she tried to maintain a bright persona. She put on a smile on the way back to Beacon with her teammates. It was just another Grimm hunt is what she told herself, over and over again, burying down the images of Grimm crawling out of the forest towards two children and a red wagon.

Yang snapped back to the present. She was hyperventilating in the middle of the amphitheater stage. Her hands were clenching her sweatpants, and her whole body was shaking.

“Program restart!” she blurted out between breaths.

The robots all rose off the floor like marionette's strings being pulled. They charged her just as harshly as before, and her next practice battle began.

Yang had to focus on training. She had to block it all out while she ran through the program just as fast as before. Had to block out the breach. Had to block out the White Fang. Had to block out…

_She was my partner,_ she thought.

Yang punched another robot.

_We supported each other through anything. But this…_

She punched it in the chest again.

_How could she just…_

Her final punch burst through the robot’s chest. The Dust gears in its motor whined down with a soft electrical crackle.

“PROGRAM. END.”

Yang’s knees gave out, and she sat down from exhaustion. She exhaled heavily. Then exhaled again. Then again.

“That’s probably not the best coping mechanism.”

Yang looked off the stage. Weiss was walking down the stands until she was on Yang’s level.

“Always been my family’s method,” Yang said. She slowly stood up. “Program restart.”

“Well I guess I can’t say anything better about my own family’s,” Weiss said as Yang started punching robots again. She folded her arms. “You doing all right?”

Yang paused for a second and looked at her friend. “I’m pissed, Weiss,” she said. She continued beating up robots. “I’m pissed at Blake. I’m pissed at her lying to me. I’m pissed that she roped Ruby into it. I’m pissed that it turns out that she didn’t give a shit about me. I’m pissed that she left. And I’m fucking pissed that my own family never bothered to say a fucking thing!”

She shattered the head of the final robot. The voice over the speaker once again announced that the program had ended. Yang sighed and slowly grabbed the broken robot and threw it onto a pile of other bots on the side of the stage that she was going to have to send to maintenance.

Yang and Weiss sat on the edge of the stage. Weiss handed Yang a towel, who started to dry her face.

“How about you?” Yang asked.

“You know what it is?” Weiss said. “I think that Ruby and Blake had other reasons for going to the warehouse. Like the mission was only the second most important thing.”

“Yeah, I had that feeling too.”

“I feel like I was used. I got pressured into this mission that they wanted me to go on for god knows what reason. Was I a distraction? I just...” she sighed loudly, “I just wish I knew what was going on and whether or not I can trust my partner.”

“Oh come on,” Yang. “This is Ruby we’re talking about.” No matter how mad Yang was at her, Ruby would come through. This was Blake’s fault.

“I’m not going to pretend that Blake is the only problem here, Yang.”

“Hey, I’m pissed too, but you don’t get to blame Ruby like that.”

“Screw you, I’ll be mad at her if I want to be.”

“Look, she's not the only one who went to that warehouse for their own reasons."

Weiss looked at Yang. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Yang groaned. She wasn’t supposed to blurt that out, but she might as well try to fix some of the damage. “Look,” she started, “Blake wasn’t the only one there for reasons other than the mission,” she said.

“Oh my god,” Weiss said. She hopped off the stage and glared at Yang.

“What? I’ve got my own shit going on.”

“This is about your ‘connections’ that you won’t talk about, isn’t it?”

“Something like that.”

“So has everyone on my team been lying to me?”

“Oh come on… there are things you haven’t told us too.”

“Nothing!” Weiss held up her arms. “Actually, nothing! And I don’t appreciate you telling me that I can’t be angry at your sister because I’m not related to her.”

“What do you know?” Yang yelled “Why do you give a shit about Ruby and Blake? She wasn’t _your_ partner. Ruby isn't your sister, just your teammate, one of your roommates.”

Weiss tensed up and lowered her arms. She stared at Yang. “Am I just one of your teammates then?”

“YES!” Yang said.

Weiss looked at Yang. She shook her head and silently turned and walked out of the amphitheater.

Yang lowered her head. “Damn it,” she said once she was alone again. She threw the towel at the pile of robots and a clatter of metal echoed around her.

 

* * *

 

It was on the warmer side that afternoon, so Weiss didn’t need a jacket. Not that Vale’s cold days even compared to Atlas’s. Weiss was wandering around campus; she didn't really know what to do with herself these days. She couldn’t push herself to bother with training, even though that had been her main push for the last couple years.

The day after Blake left, Weiss went back to the dorm room and even now it was still a mess. She managed to clean up a few items, but the bunk bed smashed to pieces on the ground made the place a dump. However, Weiss didn’t have any place else to go.

It had been days, and Ruby never came back to the room to see her.

Weiss made her way to the landing pads at the back of campus. There were some airships docked, unloading some cargo and  Atlesian Knight-200s, the most common but gold standard of Atlas military battle robots, for campus security. Ozpin accepted Ironwood’s offer to boost Beacon’s defenses, considering the potential of the school being the target for a second bombing.

Weiss took a look at the going-ons around her. Forklifts were hauling supplies into campus around several airship marshallers directing where the cargo ships landed and took off with orange batons. They were coming and going from the large carrier ships that came from Atlas. They’d brought enough cargo to build and defend a fortress.

At the center of this organized chaos, was Winter. She was directing the placements of the Knights to where they would be most effective around campus. She'd spent the last two days studying Beacon's defenses and had taken charge of setting the distribution of Atlas's forces in Vale. General Ironwood often left her in charge of his operations. She was his right-hand after all.

Weiss made her way over to her sister as soon as it looked like she finally had a break in directing troop placement. “Afternoon, Weiss,” Winter said.

“Hey,” Weiss said. “You look busy.”

“There is a lot to manage,” Winter said. “Troop placement is a hassle enough, but the flagship has more robots than actual soldiers; they are my primary responsibility.”

“It’s weird seeing Vale on lockdown like this,” Weiss said. It wasn’t just Beacon that was under security boosts. Vale upped its police presence, new checkpoints all over the place, the citizens couldn’t even get around the entertainment district, causing a massive cost to businesses across the entire Kingdom.

“The possibility of future attacks is very high,” Winter said. “Even with the tunnels completely sealed, which was long overdue. But Atlas is merely here for support.”

Weiss laughed and looked up at the fleet of Atlas airships hovering in the sky. “You call _that_ support?”

“You should have seen how many ships the general wanted to bring,” Winter said. “However, the Vale counsel thought that it would be too intimidating to the citizens.”

“I think a dozen is intimidating enough.”

“Honestly, this breach is becoming a bigger deal than it deserves. No deaths. One-hundred percent containment. You couldn’t ask for better results. But if there's another one, we might not be so lucky.”

Weiss nodded. Even if she and her team hadn't been at the breach, it probably wouldn't have ended differently. Vale Security showed up just in time. Atlas and Beacon's students and staff swooped in and handled things perfectly. A little too perfectly.

“So how are you doing?” Winter said. “One of your teammates being missing and all.”

“It’s a bit weird,” Weiss said. “I’m the only one still staying in the dorm room. Ruby and Yang have been avoiding each other, and me, so yeah, great couple of days.” Weiss folded her arms. “Are you sure guys can’t look for Blake?”

“It’s winter break, the students are allowed to leave campus whenever they want, and anyway, if she did get recruited by the White Fang--”

"She did," Weiss said. Weiss wanted to rat out Ruby’s confession of Blake’s previous involvement with the terrorists, but she didn’t have the heart to do it. Maybe that’s what Ruby meant when she said she lied because of a promise. However, she couldn't bring herself to forgive either of them.

Winter looked at her sister. “The White Fang is still in a weird place legally in Vale. If you make it public that you’ve joined, you’ll probably be put on a watch list, but it’s not illegal like it is in Atlas and Mistral… yet.”

Weiss was silent.

Winter sighed. “I’ll see what I can do,” she said. She patted Weiss on the shoulder.

“Thanks,” Weiss said. “I just feel like my team is leaving me behind.”

“I’ve got you no matter what,” Winter said. She wrapped an arm around Weiss and hugged her. Weiss hugged her back.

 

* * *

 

Ruby hit the punching bag. She’d upped her workout routine the last few days. She was running longer, lifting more, and fighting harder than ever before. In just a few days, her Aura and natural strength had made incredible progress through her new regiment. Ruby slipped and ducked back and forth before lunging forward and punching the bag again. She kept her footwork active as the bag swung back from every one of her quick hits.

Blake was a distraction. Ruby was paying for that now, and she needed to catch up and continue down the path to becoming a Hunter.

Ruby stopped and caught the punching bag when she heard someone hitting the bag next to her.

“Hey neighbor,” Nora said while focusing mostly on the bag in front of her.

“What do you want?” Ruby said.

“To punch this,” Nora said, growling with a strong punch with her full strength behind it.

“If you’re here to talk to me then--”

“Don’t be so full of yourself,” Nora said. Ruby raised an eyebrow and looked over at her friend. Nora hit the bag again and then finally looked at Ruby, “I’ve got more important stuff to punch a bag over than listen to your problems.”

Ruby looked back at her bag. “Okay,” she said. The official Ozpin supported story  was that Blake left for winter break, but among the few students left at school, rumors and speculation spread fast. There were already stories about what Blake was involved in or how she got expelled. All wrong, but it didn’t help. Ruby was pretty sure that it was Weiss who had told JNPR what happened, or at least part of what happened.

Ruby pushed her bag away from her and punched it when it swung back at her. She hit it with a combo of punches, and every time she noticed Nora punching her own bag, she noticed her speed was just a little faster than Ruby's. Ruby sped up, racing Nora and hitting harder. Nora hit harder as Ruby caught up, making the bag swing higher away from her with every punch. Ruby put everything she had into her next set of punches, making sure her bag never got the chance to swing back by taking two steps forward. Ruby grunted through the pain as she kept hitting the bag over and over...

After a while of this, Nora and Ruby sat panting on the gym bench on the side of the room. Ruby focused some of her Aura around her hands, healing the damage she’d done. Nora handed Ruby an extra water bottle, which she quickly gulped down.

“It’s weird with so few people at school,” Ruby said.

“Everyone still seems a little shell shocked by the breach. Grimm always out there and everything,” Nora said.

“What about you?”

“Not freaking out the same way they are,” Nora said with a sad laugh. Ruby looked over at Nora in concern. “Ren ever mention why we became Hunters?”

Ruby shook her head. “Don’t think so,” she said.

“We grew up in Kuroyuri,” Nora said.

“Oh god,” Ruby said. Kuroyuri was a famous case study of a settlement being retaken by Grimm. It was a city of thousands and was an international tragedy when it fell almost ten years ago. Even Ruby, as a very young child, remembered people on Patch talking about that one.

“Yeah, only survivors and everything,” Nora played it off. “The breach is a little bit of a bad reminder.”

Ruby didn't know what to say. She'd survived a Grimm attack as a child too, but there was a difference between what she had experienced and watching everyone you love, your home, your whole world lost in one night.

“It’s weird,” Nora said. “Fighting them outside of the walls doesn’t mess with me, but this is Vale. I didn’t realize it at first, but a couple of hours later I kinda freaked out. Me and Ren know better than anyone that we’re never safe, but that doesn't make it any easier.”

Ruby nodded. Nora was supposed to be the lighthearted friend who forced Ruby to learn how to dance or aggressively gave out dating advice, so it was eerie for Ruby to see her talk about something so serious. Ruby couldn’t help but wonder how long it would be until something like Kuroyuri happened again. It was up to Hunters like her to prolong that as much as possible.

“Anyway,” Nora said. “Thanks for letting me vent.”

“No problem,” Ruby said.

“Hey, Nora!” Jaune’s voice echoed through the room. “You in here?”

Nora perked up. “Yo!”

Jaune, Ren, and Pyrrha walked into the gym. Nora jumped to her feet and walked up to her team. “Where’ve you been?” Jaune asked.

“Just getting some training in,” Nora said. Ruby stood up and slowly made her way over to team JNPR.

“If you overwork yourself you’ll damage your progress,” Ren said.

“I’m fine. Gotta work on that muscle,” Nora said. “Keeping it ripped!”

“When I was a child, I’d get a lot worse than a warning if I went off my training schedule,” Pyrrha said.

“Sometimes, you gotta beat the crap out of something. Right?” Nora said,

“No?” Pyrrha said.

“Well shoot,” Nora said. “Help me out here Ruby.”

“What do you guys do for stress relief?” Ruby said.

“Play video games,” Jaune said.

“Just ride it out,” Pyrrha said. “I guess I’ve been playing some games with Jaune though.”

“Aw,” Ruby said and Nora snickered under her breath.

“We all play games it’s not just… anyway,” Pyrrha said. Both Pyrrha and Jaune blushed.

_God damn it Jaune,_ Ruby thought. But maybe he’d actually had his head in the right place by not pursuing a relationship. Look at where she was now after she got distracted with Blake.

“Hey, Ruby?” Jaune said, changing his tone. “If you guy need anything…”

“We’re fine,” Ruby said. “Don’t worry about it.”

Ren’s Scroll booped, and he looked at a notification on his device.

“You know...” Ruby said turning to Pyrrha. “One of these days I need to talk to you guys about differences between combat schools in the Kingdoms compared to Patch.”

“Oh yeah,” Nora said. “Pyrrha’s stories about Mistral sound tough, but everything Yang’s told me about Patch sounds like they gave a bunch of kids the parts to make some guns and then threw them out into the woods.”

_Well, she’s not wrong per se,_ Ruby thought.

“I’m sure I was just exaggerating Mistral’s training regimes,” Pyrrha said. “The dietary plans weren’t as--”

“Guys,” Ren said. “Look at this.” He pointed his Scroll towards the rest of the group.

On his Scroll was a breaking news report. The reporter was urgently commenting on an update to the breach story.

When Ruby heard the news, her eyes widened _._

_“We've received confirmation that the group responsible for the breach last week have made a bomb threat against Beacon Academy.”_


	18. Ignition

The footage started with a black screen. Muffled rustling audio started as someone roughly put the camera on a tripod. The picture flicked on as the lens cap was removed and the picture focused on a tarp taped against a concrete wall. A pink and brown haired girl with a frilly umbrella walked into frame. She waved at the camera and cleared her throat.

_“Hello everyone!”_ Neo signed. _“How are we doing this fine afternoon?”_ The video had been edited with subtitles before it was sent to Vale media stations so that anyone could understand every threatening word. Neo’s hand and arm movements were smooth, and she was wearing a gleeful smile on her face.

_“For the last week,”_ she continued signing, _“the Atlas Military has held my boss on one of their pretty airships, and I miss him. And since I can’t visit him, I thought I would do the next best thing: Make you bring him to me._

_“So, from the time of this recording’s release, I’ll give the Atlas military forty-eight hours to release my boss, or I will personally do to Beacon Academy what we did to that statue the other day.”_ She mimed an explosion before she continued, her signing getting more aggressive as the smile on her face melted into a scowl. _“All your precious baby murderers are set to go boom! Maybe that will make you reconsider.”_

Neo flipped off the camera and the video ended.

  


Over the break, Beacon’s remaining student body had been reduced to a few dozen. They all filed into the assembly hall easily, leaving plenty of empty seats. It was early evening, and the Hunters-in-training had all been summoned for an important announcement from the faculty, but they all knew what it was about. The video had spread around the CCTS network so much it was hard to believe it had been out for only a few hours.

Ruby walked into the assembly alone. She made her way over to where JNPR was and sat down next to Nora and Ren. She leaned back in the seat and glanced over her shoulder. Yang was sitting alone at the back, ignoring the side of the room where Ruby was, and Weiss was just now entering the hall.

She and Ruby made eye-contact.

Weiss turned away and walked down the steps and sat next to Team CFVY.

Ruby looked down, but only for a moment. She straightened her shoulders and looked at the front of the hall as the faculty members came in. Professor Goodwitch, Amber and Port walked onto the stage with Goodwitch approaching the microphone stand.

“Good evening,” Professor Goodwitch said. “I assume that you all know why you are here, so I’ll cut to the chase. In light of recent threats to the safety of this school and its occupants, all students and non-essential staff will be evacuating while an investigation and search of the campus grounds are conducted. The Atlas Military will also remain and cooperate with the staff.”

A student Ruby didn’t recognize raised his hand. “I don’t have a place to stay in Vale, so…”

“All students will be given housing. We have made all the arrangements,” Goodwitch said. She explained that a second dorm had been prepared in the city and that tonight all the students would be moved there. After an explanation of the logistics of how and when they would evacuate, Goodwitch said, “Any other questions?”

Pyrrha stood up. “I know that I can’t be the only one here who feels like we should stay and help if there’s anything we can do. This is our home. Whether it be additional security or--”

“There is no reason to endanger the lives of our students,” Goodwitch said. “If you are going to be called into action we will contact you, so please…” she sighed and spoke earnestly, like she was going off script “I understand your feelings, I really do. This will be handled by the beginning of next semester. Take this opportunity to rest and prepare for your continued training.”

Pyrrha nodded and sat back down. From her expression, Ruby could tell that Goodwitch’s sincere plea hadn’t helped. Pyrrha looked troubled; restless to do more, and Ruby understood. It felt like they were all useless right now. Like they were just in the way.

A couple minutes and questions later, the students were dismissed and sent to collect their things and go to their assigned busses near the landing pads which would take them to Vale. Everyone stood up and started heading towards the exit, murmuring between themselves nervously. Ruby slowly stood up with JNPR to file out of the room with the rest of the student body. She looked up at the professors on the stage. Goodwitch and Port were quietly talking, and Amber was staring right at Ruby.

Their eyes met. Ruby frowned as she stared back at her professor. For the last week, Ruby had noticed Amber’s gaze lingering on her if they passed each other on campus, or if the professor had looked into the gym during Ruby’s training. Something had caught her professor’s interest, but Ruby didn’t know what.

Ruby turned and followed the rest of the students out of the assembly hall, while Amber kept her eyes on her.

Thirty minutes later, Ruby was finally finishing up packing her locker and was the last student left the gym. Crescent Rose was in her case and Ruby had just zipped up a duffle bag holding the rest of Ruby’s training gear. All she needed to collect was her suitcase in her dorm room, but she was taking her time. She’d rather wait until Yang and Weiss were out of there before she packed. Would rather not deal with any drama right now.

Ruby closed her locker, revealing Professor Amber standing at the end of the row. Ruby grumbled when she saw her. Amber had a barely visible smirk and the faint hint of amusement hidden in her eyes.

“So, you finally found something to fight for,” Amber said.

Ruby raised an eyebrow. “I’ve always had something to fight for.”

“First I’ve seen it,” she said. “I guess you’ve just done a good job at burying it this whole time. It takes a lot to trick someone like me.”

“What do you want?” Ruby said. “I’m sick of you spying on me all week.”

“I wanted to see it for myself,” Amber said. “Your true self you hide behind your ideals. You being driven. Angry.” She tilted her head. “I thought I would enjoy it more…”

Ruby picked up her duffle bag. “You know what your problem is?”

“Do tell,” Amber said dryly.

“Not only do you not want to teach us,” Ruby said, “but you don’t want any of us to succeed. At all.”

Amber shrugged, not denying it.

“Why do you even teach Hunters? What the hell happened to you to make you so miserable?” Ruby was done with the whole meek student act. She was done feeling scared of her peers. Done with Amber’s bullshit.

Amber was silent for a moment before she spoke. “I teach because I got messed up in the field, kid. Ozpin recruited me so now I’m stuck teaching you brats. That’s it. The stories you all tell each other about me and--” she motioned to the scars on her face “--are pretty exaggerated. Then again, so are most stories you hear about Hunters.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ruby said.

“It’s all bullshit, kid,” Amber said. “You’re better off leaving on that bus and never coming back.”

_It’s not bullshit!_ Ruby thought. The image of a lonely grave on top of a cliff covered in snow appeared in her mind, but Ruby kept her cool. She couldn't let Amber get to her. “You’d like that wouldn’t you,” Ruby said. “You spend all your time training us, but deep down you hate Hunters.”

“I don’t _hate_ Hunters,” Amber said. “I am a Hunter. It doesn’t matter if we’re right or wrong; good or evil. I’m a Hunter, and I’ll do my job.”

“You act like killing Grimm isn’t the only thing keeping them from wiping us out like they did two hundred years ago.”

Amber nodded. “True, but do you know where Grimm came from?”

“No,” Ruby said. “No one does.”

“Exactly. Hunters and the Kingdoms shut down outside research on Grimm because if any solution was discovered, we’d be out of a job. We only try to learn how to kill them.”

“What else is there to know?” Ruby said.

“Well, the leading theory is that they are the planet’s Semblance, or whatever a planet lifeforce equivalent would be,” Amber said, slipping into the annoyed tone she always used during her lectures. “After the mining explosion on the moon, the extraterrestrial mineral we call Dust rained down across the world and had some harmful effects on the life-force of our planet, if you believe that sort of thing. It was the last straw after centuries of habitat destruction and a Semblance manifested like white blood cells to set out and destroy those who had hurt it: Humans.

“In a way, the cataclysm was the best thing that could have happened to make humanity finally evolve. The struggle to survive the new threat unlocked our Aura and Semblance potential and gave us a chance to rebuild. A large group of humans mutated themselves so that they would be stronger, faster, have night vision and just be better adapted for the situation. They were the best at it until the rest of humanity enslaved them. All that being said, it wasn’t our ingenuity that helped us survive. Dust just turned out to be more harmful to Grimm than any other element, and it’s not like we discovered Aura on purpose. It all boiled down to luck.”

“We didn’t survive because of luck!” Ruby said. “We survived because people like Hunters stepped up and defended humanity. Fought the battles that matter. Sacrificed themselves so that everyone could live another day.”

Amber stared at Ruby. “Now you sound like Ozpin.”

“That’s good,” Ruby said.

Amber turned away and silently left the locker room.

_Isn’t it?_

 

* * *

 

Ruby stepped onto the bus, her weapon case and duffle bag on each shoulder and a suitcase in tow. The evacuating students and staff were split between three buses which they were assigned to during the assembly. Ruby found an empty seat and set her bags in the luggage compartment above her and her weapon case on the seat next to her.

Ruby sighed as she sat back in her chair. Other students settled down around her. She looked to the seat across from her to her right and made eye contact with the student sitting there.

Weiss stared back in an uncomfortable silence.

Ruby sighed and thought about how she should have checked who she was sitting next to before she sat down. But it was too late now. It wasn’t worth finding another empty seat.

“Haven’t seen Yang in here,” Ruby said, deciding that not saying anything was worse than saying nothing, even if it was useless small talk. “I thought she was on the same bus as us.”

“Well she left before I did, so I guess not,” Weiss said.

“Hmnn,” Ruby grunted. The bus driver announced that they were preparing to leave. Ruby looked outside the window. It was dark, but the clear skies let the moonlight shine down making everything that was going on on the landing pad visible to her. The bus in front of hers had already started its engines and was pulling away to drive off campus, and on the landing pads, a worker was directing air traffic with two glowing batons to for small cargo ships going to and from the Atlas fleet. Some additional Atlesian Knight robots were being deployed and taking positions around the campus near the landing pads. _They really are putting this place on lockdown,_ Ruby thought. And only the most important people were allowed to stay and protect the school.

“So what have you been up to for the last couple days?” Weiss asked.

“Keeping myself busy with training,” Ruby said dismissively.

Weiss nodded. “I get it.”

“You don't get it,” Ruby snapped.

“I--” Weiss sighed. “I’ve been getting that a lot lately, so you're probably right.”

Ruby looked down. Now she felt like garbage… again. She knew she shouldn’t be lashing out at Weiss, it wasn’t her fault, she just didn’t know how to explain that to her. “I guess…” Ruby said. “I guess I’ve really just been distracting myself from trying to figure out why Blake left.”

“She left because she’s an idiot,” Weiss said.

Ruby looked over at Weiss.

Weiss frowned. “She would have to be an idiot to leave you. Us. To leave all of us.” She blushed and turned away from Ruby. “She just can’t look past her Faunus heritage to the bigger picture. She’s just like the rest of them,” she said looking down. She said it mostly to herself like Ruby wasn’t the one she was convincing in this conversation.

Ruby looked out her window again. More than anything, she wanted to confront Blake. To snap her out of it. By force if necessary. Relieve some stress while she was at it too. She put her hand on Crescent Rose’s case.

A small cargo airship landed a couple dozen yards away from the bus on Ruby’s side. It looked familiar. She'd seen that model around lately, but something about this one bugged her. She looked closer at the front of the ship. The hull by the cockpit was a little dented, and the front windshield had a large crack in it. Like someone had slammed or fallen against it.

Ruby’s eyes widened in recognition.

“Hey, Ruby?” Weiss said, still looking down. “I just wanted to say, I’m sorry for avoiding you the last couple days. It wasn’t right, and instead of pushing you away I should have just admitted how I feel about you.” The bus’s engines started up as Weiss looked over at her partner. “Ruby I…”

But Ruby was gone.

The duffle bag and suitcase were still in their compartment. But Crescent Rose’s case and Ruby had disappeared, only a couple petals settling onto the seat in her place.

Weiss stood up and looked at the front of the bus as the doors closed. They started to drive off campus as Weiss looked out of her window and tried to look behind them. The ships were getting smaller as they drove away from the landing pads and she caught a glimpse of the dorms before the bus turned the corner, spotting a crimson cloak speed into the building.

_What the hell are you doing, Ruby?_ Weiss thought as she sat down and let the bus drive her away.

 

* * *

 

The hallway lights in the empty dorm building dimmed for the night, an automatic setting that remained even after all the occupants had evacuated. A section of the hall on the third floor flicked on after the motion sensors picked up two Atlas soldiers making their patrol. The shorter soldier grabbed his radio from his hip and reported to HQ that everything was clear. He sighed as silence fell in the hall again. He would have gladly spent the evening casually talking to whoever he’d partnered up with that night, but he got paired with the new recruit, who was not talkative, especially on duty. He’d given up trying to get to know the guy several patrols ago. The lights in the section behind the guards, who had walked into a new part of the hallway, dimmed from having no one moving around to trip the motion sensor. It was going to be a long night guarding the most important locations of strategic value: children’s bedrooms. Even a low-security priority like the dorms still needed someone to keep an eye on them. These two were unlucky enough to have been assigned the night shift last minute now that the campus was on security alert indefinitely. The smaller soldier listened to HQ acknowledge his report while he muttered along with the script and put his radio back on his belt as the lights in the section behind him flicked back on.

The last thing the Atlas guards heard before they were hit was two quiet pops down the hallways behind them. Two Dust rounds sent a web of electric arcs across the surface of their armor, turning it into a conductor that tased the soldiers underneath. Before he ever had the chance to sound the alarm, the soldier with the radio convulsed and fell to his knees with his partner as sparks shot off them.

Eight Faunus wearing Grimm skull masks emerged from the back of the hallway and crouch-walked towards the fallen guards while keeping out of view from outside the windows. They took their positions. A Faunus at the front and at the back turned and covered the hallway behind and in front of the squad. They were all armed with Dust rifles and knife pistols sheathed on their belts. One bend over the two soldiers and checked that they were unconscious. He signaled back to the squad leader that it was clear before he tied the two Atlas soldier's hands behind their backs with zip ties and taped their mouths closed.

The squad leader checked her scroll. The timer counted down on the screen with a white chess piece symbol next to it. “Eleven minutes,” she said to her team. “We keep this position covered while the other teams move in at the signal.”

Before one of the lookouts could recognize the threat, Ruby spun around the corner and with a shot from her rifle, launched herself into the hall at the squad, kicking the lookout’s face into the drywall. The rest of the Faunus activated their Auras and opened fire. Ruby spun around and fired back in her sniper-rifle form, destroying one's Aura and knocking them out as well. The recoil from the shot flipped Ruby backward. She transformed Crescent Rose into its scythe form mid-air and did a three-point landing, right into the position required to launch into a sprint. In a burst of rose petals, Ruby charged the rest of the Faunus.

Ruby swung down mid-charge on one of the Faunus who blocked with his knife. She looked over her shoulder and kicked the rifle out of the hands of a White Fang to her side. She spun her scythe around to blocked the one with the knife who was trying to stab her while she was distracted. He tossed the knife to his other hand and shot a bullet at her. Ruby lept to the side to avoid it and was about to rush him again when a white fire bolt came at her. She swatted the flaming ball out of the air with her scythe.

One of the White Fang was holding their arm out. A surge of light flowed through their body and pooled into their fist. The Faunus activated their Semblance for another attack and pitched another fireball at Ruby. Ruby dodged further into the squad as all six remaining Faunus surrounded her.

Two Faunus pulled out their knives and charged Ruby. Ruby slashed up, throwing shreds of the floor into their faces. When the Faunus flinched, Ruby used the opening; tripped one with her scythe and punched another. She sliced the one she just knocked down across the back as they fell, taking out most of their Aura. She aimed down as the Faunus hit the floor and fired a shot, shattering their Aura before she kicked them across the face, knocking them out. Ruby quickly countered a retaliation from another Faunus and was forced into a defensive stance.

The Faunus with the Semblance aimed at Ruby again. Ruby readied herself to block or dodge the attack depending on when they fired or how close the other Faunus got, or if different one shot at her too. She glanced between all her enemies surrounding her, waiting for one to move first. There seemed to be only one with a Semblance. They all had Aura; definitely a higher caliber than the guys Roman hired. The Semblance-user charged up their power again. The energy pooled into their palm as they waited for the right moment to attack. Another Faunus growled as they swung their knife through the air towards Ruby as a third put their finger over the trigger of their rifle.

A pair of shots blasted in the hallway. Ruby turned towards the sound, but none of the White Fang had shot at her.

A golden blur appeared in front of Ruby, launching herself with her gauntlets into the midst of the fight and punched the White Fang squad leader in the face, slamming her against the ground and massively damaging her Aura. Yang turned and grabbed the wrist of the Faunus with a Semblance, dispelling their attack before she shotgun punched them in the ribs, crippling their Aura.

Ruby took the opportunity and charged the four other Faunus distracted by the appearance of a new opponent. She spun her scythe, making them step back before Ruby sped through them, knocking two down in the process and swung back at the other two. Yang finished off the leader and the Semblance-user and joined Ruby at her back as the two Faunus Ruby just knocked down got up. Ruby swung her scythe at her opponents as Yang blocked and punched her own pair of White Fang. Ruby caught the arm of one Faunus, hit it across her knee, knocking their weapon out of their hand before she twisted his arm and shoved him into the other Faunus. Ruby swung Crescent Rose and slashed off their Auras while they stumbled over each other. Yang grabbed both Faunus she was fighting and slammed their heads together with enough force their Auras shattered. In another few seconds, all four remaining Faunus were unconscious and lay in a heap in the middle of the hallway.

Both sisters gasped for breath. “You okay?” Yang asked.

“Yeah,” Ruby said. She smiled but straightened her face before Yang had the chance to see it. _Keep it professional,_ she thought. _Now’s not the time._

“Why are _you_ here?” Yang asked.

“To save the school,” Ruby said. “You?”

“The same,” Yang said. She put her hands on her waist and finished catching her breath.

The lights in the hall suddenly went out. Ruby blinked a couple times to adjust to the darkness. She looked out the window. It wasn’t just the dorm. Power to the entire school had been cut, the only remaining light source on campus was Beacon Tower’s green light.

“Is the security system down?” Ruby asked.

Yang walked over to the wall and punched the fire alarm. Nothing happened. “Probably,” she said.

“Then no one knows what’s about to happen then,” Ruby said. The squad leader had said something about other groups infiltrating the school. If they could waste this many Faunus on the dorms than it was worse than she’d feared.

“The CCTS,” Yang said.

Ruby nodded. Exactly what she was thinking. An attack on the CCTS would wipe out communication and the network between the Kingdoms. It would be devastating. “I recognized a ship from the warehouse, so I knew something was up,” Ruby said.

“At the landing pads?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s crawling with Atlas soldiers,” Yang said. “Why would they go there?”

“I don’t know,” Ruby said.

Yang inhaled and exhaled. “Okay, you’re faster,” she said. “You check out the CCTS, I’ll investigate the ships.”

“Right.” Ruby folded her scythe and got ready to dash down the hall.

“If you see Blake…” Yang said.

Ruby stopped and turned to her sister.

Yang sighed and looked Ruby in the eye. “Get a hit in for me.”

Ruby nodded. “You too.” In a burst of speed, Ruby disappeared down the hallway.


	19. The Battle of Beacon

Ruby burst onto the dorm roof. She skidded to the edge and slammed against the gutter. Scanning the dark campus below her, the Vale and Atlas forces were frantic from the blackout. No power meant that all backup Dust generators had been sabotaged and the Atlas soldiers were scurrying around the lecture building while trying to figure out what was happening and get in contact with their command center on the carrier-class ships hovering hundreds of feet above them.

The only light left on campus was from the green glow from the top of the CCTS tower. It didn’t look like anything had gone down over there, but considering the bomb threat, Ruby knew that could change in an instant. Ruby looked through Crescent Rose’s scope to get a closer look. All the power to the tower that didn’t involve maintaining the network had been cut off with the rest of the campus. _Have they already gotten inside the tower?_ Ruby thought. Vale security and Atlesian Knights were on high alert as they guarded the walkway to the CCTS. Ruby moved her scope down. Professor Goodwitch, some other faculty, and a Hunter-- it was obvious from their glave-type weapon-- were quickly moving to the front of campus to provide support at Beacon Tower.

Ruby pointed her rifle down at the space between the dorm and the cafeteria entrance. Compared to the CCTS tower or the Dust supply in the training and lecture halls, this part of campus was practically unguarded, and from what Ruby had seen tonight, that meant the White Fang was already here.

At first glance, Ruby didn’t spot anything, but on a hunch, she moved her scope back and focused on the shrubs and bushes near the cafeteria. A group of figures was hiding in the shadows. She could make out their bleached-white masks and animal features even in this light. The group of Faunus slipped into the cafeteria under the distraction of the blackout and vanished without a trace. Before Ruby lost sight of them, she saw the one leading the pack. Over his mask, he had red hair and two horns.

It was that Taurus guy. Ruby would bet anything on it. What little she’d seen of him on the network and their brief fight at the warehouse was seared into her head. He was the one Blake was after at the warehouse, and Ruby’s only lead in finding her.

Ruby backed up a few steps before she ran and launched herself off the roof. Focusing her Aura into her legs, the lawn shattered beneath Ruby. Chunks of turf scattered behind Ruby as she sprinted towards the cafeteria. Even with the indoor cover, the Faunus wouldn't avoid Ruby for long, but she had to go fast. She couldn’t afford to lose them this time. Things were about to kick off across all of Beacon, and she needed to make the first move.

Ruby burst through the cafeteria doors, Crescent Rose drawn. The squad of Faunus who had made their way to the other end of the hall turned at the sudden sound of the doors shattering off their hinges. They all drew their weapons as soon as they saw Ruby, except for a masked young woman standing next to Adam with long black hair and two exposed cat ears.

“BLAKE!!!” Ruby roared.

There she was. Blake didn't even look surprised at Ruby's appearance. Even with a mask covering her face, Ruby could see that she looked... sad. Almost like she knew Ruby would come but didn't want to admit it. Blake had changed her outfit in the time they'd been apart. She was wearing a long white tailcoat over a black crop top and pants with thigh-high boots. From appearances, it looked like more time had passed than just over a week. Blake was taller, surer of herself; almost like she belonged with these people.

Even with all the changes, even without the bow, it was still the same Blake. The same Blake who rested on Ruby's lap on lazy afternoons. Who shared books and double checked that Ruby had finished the page before turning it. Who failed to get Ruby into black coffee which Ruby swore the taste of was stuck in her mouth for two days. The same Blake who'd loiter around bookstores with her girlfriend. But, now, she was wearing a Grimm mask. Wearing the image of everything Ruby was fighting against. A mockery of their training, their duty. The duty that Blake betrayed.

Ruby gritted her teeth and gripped Crescent Rose, ready to charge at all the Faunus in front of her to get to her ex-teammate.

Blake turned to the other members of her squad. “Go on ahead,” she said. She walked in front of all of them, facing Ruby, and pulled Gamble Shroud off her back. Her sadness had faded into resolve.

Adam looked at Ruby and then at Blake. He turned around to his team and signaled for them to keep going. He nodded at Blake before turning and catching up with his squad.

As soon as they were out of sight, Ruby stared at Blake. Blake stared back at Ruby. She removed her mask and tossed it to the side before she slowly walked towards her ex-leader.

Without hesitation, Ruby activated her Semblance and charged at Blake, who started running towards Ruby in response. Ruby leapt at Blake and swung her scythe down, growling as she put all her weight and Aura’s strength behind the blow. Blake folded Gamble Shroud into its sword mode and swung up at Ruby.

Their weapons clashed; a shower of sparks rained down between them as their battle began.

 

* * *

 

Yang pushed open the dorm building’s doors and sprinted out towards the Atlas soldiers at the landing pads. Her mind was racing a mile a minute. The White Fang was here, and if they were here, that meant that Raven might be too. All these years of searching and there was a chance that if she just ran around campus long enough, she might spot her. Despite the situation, she couldn’t help but wear a big grin while she ran.

General Ironwood was standing at the center of one of the landing pads with several Atlas soldiers and officers, including Weiss’s sister. Ironwood was barking orders at his subordinates. They were hectically trying to get in contact with the rest of their troops around the campus and figure out what had caused the blackout.

Winter was the first to notice Yang running up to the group. “You missed your bus,” she said in a professional tone, betraying no stress from the situation. She took a step away from her fellow soldiers towards Yang. “Evacuate the school immediately.”

“White Fang’s on campus!” Yang said.

That got their attention. Ironwood and Winter exchanged a look before turning their full attention towards the student. “You’ve seen them?” Winter asked.

“Ruby and I had a run in with a squad in the dorms,” Yang gestured behind her, “and there’s definitely more of them hanging around.”

Winter’s impartial facade broke for a moment. “Is Weiss with her?” she asked

“No,” Yang said. “She got off campus with everybody else.”

Winter exhaled in relief.

General Ironwood turned to another one of his Atlas officers. “Lieutenant, get in contact with the school faculty and Ozpin _now!_ ” He turned to Winter. “Meet up with our team around the CCTS and find out what the hell is happening over there.” Winter nodded. She rounded up some soldiers and Atlesian Knight robots in the vicinity; after a nod to Yang, they all started running towards the large tower to the west.

Yang turned to the general before he also ran off. “Ruby mentioned she saw one of the ships from the White Fang warehouse over here.”

Ironwood looked around until he saw one of the land pad’s marshallers who was scratching his head with his glowing baton, confused by the bits and pieces he’d heard of the tense discussion. “Were all the cargo ships sent up to the fleet?” the general asked.

“Yes sir,” the marshaller said. “We sent them up just now.”

Ironwood frowned and looked up at the fleet above Beacon. The small ships had already docked in the flagship hangar. “Shit.”

_They’re not going for the CCTS?_ Yang thought. “Could the ships be the real target and all this, the blackout and bomb threat, is just a distraction?” Yang asked. She didn’t know. She was just as confused as everyone else was and was throwing out ideas at this point.

“It’s possible,” Ironwood said turning towards Yang. “You said your sister Rose was here too?”

“Yeah,” Yang said. “She’s running to the CCTS to help out.”

Ironwood put a hand to his earpiece. “Come in bridge,” he called. “Come in." He pulled out the earpiece and glared at it. "Damn it. What is jamming us?” He waved over two of his soldiers and ordered them to board an Atlas troop transport with him to fly up there and investigate immediately.

Yang looked up at the massive flagship above her. If the ship was the real target, then this was her chance to find Raven.

“Not to bug you guys,” Yang called out to Ironwood with as much cocky energy as she could fake. He turned towards her once again as Yang said, “But you’re going to need all the help you can get.”

Ironwood looked Yang up and down and smirked. “All right,” he said. “You’re with me.”

The engines were already started when they boarded the transport. The ship was a single cabin with a sliding door for deploying troops and robots. Yang stood next to the door, holding on to a hanging strap as Ironwood walked up to the pilot sitting at the front of the cabin. Behind Yang was a row of six unactivated Atlesian Knights docked in their charging stations, dormant until activated for battle.

The door slid closed to Yang’s left as the ship lifted into the air and ascended towards the large floating fortress.

“Take us to the main hangar bay,” Ironwood said to the pilot.

“Yes sir,” the pilot said. He attempted to radio the ship to let them know they were coming. They would land whether or not the general’s transport received a confirmation signal; the pilot knew better than question Ironwood’s orders.

Yang walked up next to Ironwood and looked out the front windshield at the flagship. Most Atlas carrier-class ships had smaller airships land and takeoff from a large flat landing strip on the top, but the enormous elite-class carrier, Ironwood’s personal flagship, had large hangars on each side for ships to fly in and out of. From cargo to transports to attack shuttles, the elite-carrier could carry several of each easily. Even without the dozen of airships surrounding it, the flagship was a fleet in of itself. Because of its larger size and interior landing bays, there was more room on the hull for defensive shielding and giant Dust energy canons, both for aerial combat or bombarding ground targets. Ironwood’s transport flew level with the ship as the pilot plotted their course to land in the ship’s hangar.

The pilot’s blue controls suddenly went dark. The transport lost power as the engines winded down for just a moment. The ship stalled and hung in the air, the shift in momentum shook the cabin as gravity started to pull down on the metal craft only suspended for a second longer. Before Yang had a chance to react to and grab a handrail, just as quickly as they’d become dead in the air, the engines started again and the controls rebooted, but with a dark red light behind the buttons.

“Did the battery die?” Yang asked, failing to even laugh nervously to break the tension.

“No, this is different,” the pilot said. He tried to change the course of the ship, but the controls were unresponsive. That’s what it looked like to Yang at first, but as the pilot tried again, she saw the screen of the pilot’s controls flash an error message. He was locked out.

There was a yell from one of the soldiers at the back of the cabin. Yang and Ironwood turned around. Both Atlas soldiers were incapacitated with six Atlesian Knights standing over them. They’d become activated during the ship’s power-outage and just like the controls, had a dark red glow instead of their traditional blue. They lifted their rifles which charged and one fired at Yang and Ironwood. Ironwood lifted his arm and blocked the shot which ricocheted with a metallic clang into the side of the cabin next to him. He pulled a large pistol from his holster and shot the closest robot through the head, destroying it with enough force to rival Crescent Rose’s canon.

Yang dodged a shot from another robot and reactivated her Aura. The Knight fired another shot and missed Yang again, hitting and cracking the windshield. The pilot ducked and activated his Aura to protect himself while he kept trying to get the controls back online. Yang rushed in low and got close to one of the Atlesian Knights and punch it in the head. It was tougher than it looked and lifted its rifle to shoot at her again. Yang grabbed its arm before it had the chance and ripped it off before bashing in its head with it. She turned and jumped, grabbed the rails on the ceiling of the cabin, lifted herself up, channeled her Aura to her legs, and kicked the next robot, which flew across the cabin, hitting the sliding door--harder than she’d planned.

The door burst open, and it and the robot were flung outside and plummeted through the air below. Yang let go of the bars and steadied herself in the sudden rush of air.

Ironwood shot another one of the Knights, but while he aimed at another, two robots hit him with energy blasts. “Damn it,” Ironwood grunted. His Aura took a beating from that. He reached behind him and grabbed the pilot by the shoulder and activated his Semblance. The pilot struggled and gagged as his Aura faded. It flowed out of him into the general, who’s Aura’s wounds stitched together and reinforced until the flow around him crackled with more power than at the beginning of the fight. The pilot fell unconscious. He was completely drained and slumped over the controls. Ironwood spun around and punched one of the Knights, shattering it through the chest and grabbed and pulled out wires and Dust gears as the robot slumped to the side.

The general moved out of the way of another blast which hit the pilot's controls behind him. Sparks shot across the cabin as arcs of electricity spread across the controls, short-circuiting them and sending the ship's systems haywire. The transport reared and spiraled up above the side of the flagship.

Ironwood grabbed the back of the co-pilot's seat as Yang tripped towards the open door. She fell head first and tried to turn back to grab onto something.

Yang reached her arm out and was met with nothing. It took her a moment after she saw the outside of the transport to realize that she'd been flung out of the ship.

For a moment, Yang was free-falling over open air, before she slammed into the sloped side of the nearby elite-carrier flagship. She rolled onto her stomach as she started sliding down the side of the hull. Clawing at the slick metal, Yang managed to grab a panel and clung on for dear life. The wind whipped her long hair across her face; she looked up at the transport she just flew out of as it jerked to the side away from the ship she was clinging onto before its left engine cut and the transport plummeted down towards Beacon. The ship spun underneath the carrier before it fell out of Yang's sight, crashing towards Vale's residential district.

Yang grunted and pulled herself up and looked around her. It was hard to keep her eyes open with blasts of wind around her, but luckily, she wasn't very far from an entrance hatch. She reached over to another groove on the outside of the ship and slowly climbed along to the hatch. She grabbed it with both hands and pulled. It didn't budge. Yang lifted her legs and planted both her feet on either side of the hatch and pulled out away from the ship.

The hatch popped open, almost sending Yang plummeting backward hundreds of feet down. Yang managed to keep her feet against the side of the ship and reached down to the inside of the open hatch. She grabbed the ladder inside and pulled herself headfirst into the ship, the hatch slamming down shut behind her.

Yang sat up and rubbed her head. She leaned against the wall, caught her breath, and looked around the maintenance tunnel she’d fallen into. The wind right outside the wall of metal at her back combined by the ship’s engines made everything hum with vibration.

The rush of adrenaline made Yang's heart felt like it was pounding out of her chest. Yang grabbed at her shirt and laughed nervously. She should be dead. It was a miracle she wasn't. If she'd been thrown out at any other moment, no more Yang. Everything happened so fast she didn't process it until now, but she should be _dead._

Yang cackled to herself hysterically. That was fucking awesome! She managed to calm herself down to just snickering. She stood up and checked herself. Still had Ember and Celica; still had her limbs. All good. She exhaled and snapped her fingers and pointed them as finger guns down the hall. Only direction to go. She put her thumbs under her belt and sauntered down the maintenance shaft to find an exit into the rest of the ship.

As soon as Yang peaked out of an exit door, she heard a commotion in the main halls of the ship. The crew was being rounded up by Atlesian Knights. Like the ones on her transport, they were glowing red and had turned against their Atlas masters. There was some resistance, but it looked like most of the fighting was already over, and the crew was being escorted down towards the back of the ship. For every human prisoner, there was at least one robot to detain them, with plenty of spares to make sure none of the prisoners got out of line.

A group of a dozen officers were being escorted past Yang's hiding spot. If she had to guess from her unparalleled deduction skills, they were the bridge crew. The older guy with the captain's uniform gave it away, honestly. From where she "landed" on the ship, Yang knew she was only a couple decks below the bridge and could probably sneak her way up there and see what was going on and who the hell was driving this thing now that everyone in charge had been captured. Yang closed herself back into the maintenance tunnel and looked around, quickly finding a ladder to the upper decks.

After a couple minutes of climbing and sneaking, she found the entrance to the bridge. Only two Knights guarded it. _Must be spread thin rounding up the crew_ , Yang thought. She quickly ran behind one and snapped its mechanical neck. Before the other robot could respond, Yang took the first’s rifle and shot the robot twice in the chest and once in the head. It fell with a metal thud and shot sparks onto the black reflective floor.

Yang quickly looked around. The three shots hadn’t alerted anyone from the looks of it. She checked how much ammo was left in the rifle: five shots short of a full clip. Yang put the remaining ammo back into the rifle and pointed it at the door to the bridge with one hand and hit the button to open the door with the other.

The bridge door opened and Yang quickly walked into the command center, checking her corners and the entire room for more Knights. There was some blood on the floor; the bridge crew must have not gone down without a fight, but, thankfully, there weren’t any bodies. The only figure in the room was a young female officer with her back to Yang holding a closed umbrella and standing next to the main control panel. In front of her was a Scroll plugged into the system. It had a red screen with a black chess symbol on it. Whatever was happening to Atlas’s ships and Knights, it seemed like the Scroll was the origin of all of it.

The small woman turned to the entrance. She had long black hair and green eyes, but as soon as she saw Yang, the surprise caused her eyes to turn pink and brown.

Yang would recognize that heterochromia anywhere, even if she hadn’t seen the frilly umbrella. She aimed the rifle at Neo, but faster than she could pull the trigger, Neo pulled her hidden sword out of her umbrella and threw it across the bridge and lodged the thin blade right down the barrel of Yang’s weapon.

Yang looked down at the rifle. She tried to pull the trigger, but the blade had jammed the gun. She shook the weapon before she realized she’d spent a second too long not looking at her opponent. When Yang looked up, Neo was leaping over a console, her hair shifting back into its natural brown and pink look midair, and kicked Yang in the chest. Yang fell back and slid across the floor, dropping the rifle in the process.

As quickly as she could, Yang got back on her feet, but Neo already recovered her blade from the broken gun's barrel and sheathed it back in her umbrella. Yang blocked one of Neo's whacks from the umbrella before trying to counter with a flurry of shotgun punches. Neo did a cartwheel and effortlessly avoided the several blasts.

Yang glared at the acrobat as Neo smirked back while popping open her umbrella behind her back. She strutted around Yang in the Atlas uniform like she owned it (definitely didn't) and adjusted her sleeves and collar like it was more important than the rematch.

Yang charged in for another bunch of shotgun punches. Neo blocked with her umbrella, quickly closed it and smacked Yang across the face. Yang tried to push through and regain her offense: Neo dodged the punch, pulled Yang in close and did a high kick to Yang’s head, sending her staggering back before attacking with her umbrella like a staff, whacking at Yang, keeping her on the defensive and chipping away at her Aura.

In that moment of disorientation, Neo ran up to Yang and jumped up onto Yang’s shoulders, wrapped her thighs around Yang’s neck and spun around. She'd beaten Yang using this move during their last fight. Back then, Neo staggered Yang and then used her own body weight to throw herself off of Yang, grab onto her arm and then throw her backwards up against the ceiling.

It was a move that kicked Yang's ass last time they met, and it was _exactly_ what Yang was waiting for.

Yang channeled her Aura into her arm as Neo threw herself off and tried to execute her move, which failed because of Yang's reinforced arm, leaving Neo dangling off of Yang for a vulnerable moment. Yang pulled her close, bent backward, and suplexed Neo.

They rolled apart from each other. Neo pulled herself up onto a control panel and tried to shake off the hit to her Aura, but not fast enough to react in time to Yang’s punch across her face, sending Neo splayed across another control panel. Yang grabbed Neo by the collar and punched the Aura covering her face repeatedly.

She got ready to hit Neo again when a metal coil wrapped around Yang’s wrist. It glowed yellow and sent a blast of electricity through Yang. Her body convulsed as she fell onto the floor. Yang managed to rip it off and lifted her head toward the bridge’s entrance.

A young Faunus soldier with a long brown ponytail was holding the whip-type weapon and was standing next to a large lieutenant armed with a chainsaw. She used the whip at Yang again, who blocked with her gauntlet but the Faunus was too quick. She did a series of quick thrusts, stabbing and slicing away at Yang’s Aura. She whipped, and Yang tried to block again, but it hit her across the stomach and send her flying into the side of a control station and once again onto the floor.

Before Yang could get up, both the woman and the lieutenant stood over her. The whip retracted and stiffened into a sword. The Faunus girl pointed it at Yang’s chest as the lightning Dust in the weapon activated and cracked above her. She moved forward to shock Yang’s Aura again until it was shattered.

Yang tried to figure out a way out. She could roll away, but that wouldn’t get her anywhere out of the Faunus’s range. Even trying to fight back was out of the question, she was up against two trained fighters and at a massive disadvantage. There wasn’t really a way out of this one. They wanted her Aura gone one way or another, so Yang made a bet.

Yang shut off her Aura.

The Faunus paused and gave Yang a confused look.

Yang, maintaining the most emotionless expression she could make, looked at the masked woman and raised her hands in surrender.

“Hmph,” The Faunus looked disappointed that her enemy would give up that easily. The White Fang lieutenant roughly took off Yang’s gauntlets before the girl handcuffed her. They were strong ones too. Even someone with Aura enhanced strength would have to struggle for a while to break these.

Yang looked to the side, hearing a grunt of pain from the ice cream girl getting back on her feet. Neo dusted herself off and glared down at Yang. As much as Yang wanted to finish the job and give the brat the rest of the beatdown she deserved, she was going to wait and play the long game.

“How’d she get in here?” A new voice said from the front of the room. Yang looked over at the doorway. A red-haired man entered the bridge, a swatch of hair covering one of his eyes. Roman looked around, slightly impressed, but still expecting more from the center of command over the Atlas fleet.

He made eye contact with his partner. “Neo!” he said. A grin spread across her face. She ran up to Roman and hugged him. He laughed and rubbed her head. “Good to see you too,” he said. He looked at her uniform. “Glad you finally got a job.”

Neo pulled away and with a more serious expression and signed something Yang couldn't understand.

“Aw, a little prodding and teeth pulling, but nothing I couldn’t handle,” he said waving off her concern.

Neo gave him a skeptical look and signed something.

“No, I did not!”

Neo chuckled.

Roman sighed. “I missed you too, kid.”

Neo signed for him to wait and ran over to the corner of the bridge. She came back with a duffle bag and opened it, pulling out Roman’s cane and hat.

“Ah,” Roman exclaimed. “Thank you, Neo.” He put on the bowler hat and carefully adjusted it to be just right in the reflection of one of the monitors. He twirled his cane and together, he and Neo turned to the two White Fang soldiers standing over Yang.

“Now, brave revolutionaries!” He stretched an arm out wide as if presenting the bridge of the ship. “The fleet,” dramatic pause, “is yours.” He and Neo bowed.

Yang and the two White Fang members shared the same annoyed expression. “We couldn’t have just left him in the brig?” the lieutenant grumbled.

Roman moved his arm to his chest with a pained expression “After all I’ve done for your little ragtag group--”

“Little?” the young Faunus woman said. “What?”

“--and _this_ is how I’m repaid. Harassment, I say. Even after it took you _way_ longer than planned to break me out of there.”

Neo signed something to Roman.

Roman scoffed and looked back at the two White Fang. “Rude.”

Neo skipped up to the lieutenant and eyed Yang’s gauntlets. He sighed and handed them over. Neo squeed and eagerly put them on. She fastened them to her wrists and punched them together with a metallic clank. She looked over at Roman, who gave her a thumbs up. She looked at Yang and wiggled her eyebrows at her. Yang gritted her teeth, really regretting the long game strategy.

Roman walked over to the main controls and looked at the Scroll infecting the system. “So this is what you guys were planning?” he said. “I honestly expected something with a bit more boom after all the Dust I stole for you, but this _is_ impressive.”

“Yeah, yeah,” the Faunus girl said as she walked over to the Scroll and pulled out her own. She synced them together so that she could control the ship herself.

All the pieces came together in Yang’s head. Roman’s robbery, the White Fang connection, the breach, it all made sense. Roman was a distraction, the initial scapegoat for the White Fang’s actions. He seemingly set up and executed an attack on Vale so the White Fang could bait the Atlas military here, then they somehow developed a virus to hijack the Atlas ships and robots. Obviously gaining control of an Atlas fleet would be an incredible victory for the White Fang on its own. But if they just wanted that, then why here? Why in Vale? Of course, the CCTS. The White Fang now had the firepower to destroy Beacon Tower twenty times at once. Who knew what the Kingdoms would do to keep the White Fang from destroying the network, which was exactly the bargaining power they were after.

The White Fang weren’t interested in destroying Beacon. They wanted to hold it hostage.

“Everything looks operational,” the Faunus girl said. She breathed a sigh of relief and leaned over the control panel. “Holy shit, we did it!”

“Of course, Ilia,” Roman said. “Your welcome.”

The Faunus’s emotional moment over their victory was ruined by the two assholes standing next to her.

“What did I tell you about underestimating the infiltration skills of my small friend,” Roman said. Neo elbowed him. He cleared his throat. “Anyhow, this is exciting. The greatest power in the world is in your hands, young lady. Truly a great moment for the Faunus cause.”

“Like you care,” Ilia said with disdain. “We’re not paying you _that_ much.”

“Our motives are purely altruistic,” Roman said.

Neo snickered.

Roman leaned in closer, “But our pay though?”

“What we paid you to get all the Dust wasn't enough?” Ilia said.

Roman raised an eyebrow. When it came to getting paid he didn’t play games.

Ilia sighed. “We’ve already briefed your friend here about where and when your meeting The Bandit,” she said. “She can tell you about it.”

Yang perked up at the mention of The Bandit and looked over at the two criminals. Neo signed something to Roman that Yang guessed was, “I’ll tell you later.”

“We’ll head off immediately,” Roman said. “Get out of your guys’s fur.” He laughed; the Faunus sure as hell didn’t. Roman frowned. “No sense of humor in these people,” he muttered to himself as he and Neo walked off the bridge.

“Take her to the other prisoners in the hangar bay,” Ilia told the lieutenant. He grabbed Yang’s arm and pulled her up, leading her off the bridge as Ilia called one of her comrades on her radio. “How much of the crew has been neutralized?”

“We’re getting some resistance in engineering, but we’re almost done,” a Faunus called back.

“Run security systems again,” Ilia ordered. “We can’t have anyone unaccounted for.” The door to the bridge slid shut behind Yang, cutting her off from hearing the rest of the conversation.

Yang and the lieutenant quickly caught up with Roman and Neo as soon as they started walking down the hallway. Unfortunately, they were also heading towards the hangar bay.

“So,” Roman said as Yang’s wish that he would never speak again went unanswered, “where’s Red?”

Yang stayed silent.

Neo and Roman signed something back and forth at each other, too fast for Yang to even guess. After a brief conversation, Roman turned back to Yang.

“Well next time you see her tell her that it was fun.”

“I can’t believe you’d even sell out the Kingdoms,” Yang said.

“Who me?” Roman pointed to himself. “I’m flattered you think I have standards. We’re both just fighting on our own respective side of the war, Yang. No hard feelings.”

“You’re scum, you know that?”

Neo rolled her eyes and started signing at Yang. She pointed at Yang and then herself, then pointed her index fingers at each other and pulled them apart, then she pointed again at herself and Roman before making a quick movement with her hands where she laid her palm out and with her other hand’s finger flicked towards herself and Roman.

Yang missed a couple signs in between so she looked at Roman who was laughing. “What did she say?” Yang asked.

Roman chuckled. “She said: ‘The difference between you and us is that we actually get paid well for this shit.’”

 

The hangar bay was almost as large as any you’d find in a Vale shipyard. The far end was the hangar door which led to open air outside of the carrier. Rows of attack shuttles hung from the ceiling, ready to be dropped and deployed at any moment, while on the ground small cargo ships sent up from Vale were stationed and unloaded their cargo. The White Fang had smuggled themselves and their weapons onboard when the Atlesian Knights activated. From the looks of how quickly they’d taken over the ship, the Knights had done all the work for them, leaving hardly any resistance to the Faunus takeover.

Along the side of the hangar were rows of kneeling Atlas Military crew being held captive by the Knights and a handful of White Fang members. Yang was shoved to her knees at the end of one of the rows. She glared up at the lieutenant as the closest robot adjusted its pathing to also watch over her. The lieutenant turned and barely gave her a second thought after handing her off. He walked over to Roman and Neo and gestured to one of the White Fang’s trojan ships.

“It’s yours,” he said. “We stocked it with some Atlas Military supplies for your trip. After you meet with The Bandit, you have enough fuel and supplies to go anywhere you want in Remnant.”

“Just as long as it’s not here,” Roman said with a smile.  He turned to the lieutenant and held out his hand for a handshake. “Well, it’s been fun. I hope that our services will not be forgotten.”

The lieutenant didn’t move to shake Roman’s hand. “I wish we could.”

Neo silently laughed at Roman as she climbed on board and headed for the pilot's seat. Roman boarded the ship behind her and hung out the side door while saluting the lieutenant as his partner started up the engines and lifted off the platform.

_Now_ , Yang thought.

Yang activated her Aura. The Knight in her immediate vicinity turned on her and pointed its rifle at her. One of the White Fang soldiers guarding the prisoners also pointed their weapon. “Stand down, Hunter!” they shouted. Yang flared her Aura and started to pull on her cuffs. The White Fang pointed their rifle at Yang’s head. “Get back on the ground!”

Yang turned and faced them. She started to stand, glaring up at the Faunus and put her head against the barrel.

The White Fang and the Knight both shot. Yang stumbled back from the two blasts to her Aura but managed to stay on her feet. Everyone in the hangar turned at the sound of gunfire, and the Faunus who shot Yang lowered their weapon.

Yang slowly inhaled. Her Aura felt like every muscle in her body was tensed up. She grinned and the released the tension. Her Semblance went out like a fiery shock wave that knocked down the closest Atlas prisoners and robots. The Faunus was sent stumbling back but managed to get a glimpse of Yang enveloped in yellow fire before they fell on their back.

Yang ripped her arms apart. The handcuffs shattered into a dozen metal shreds. She’d made the gamble that her Aura could hold through whatever her captors threw at her, giving her the power she needed to bust out of here. She faced the lieutenant and charged. The White Fang lieutenant looked on in shock at how poorly this situation had gone. A raging berserker of a Hunter loose on the ship and heading for him. Before he could shout an order to the other Faunus around him, Yang had already run past him, right for Neo and Roman ship that was flying out of the hangar.

Yang leaped and clung onto the open door on the side of the ship just as it escaped the carrier.

“What the fuck!’ Roman screamed. Yang pulled herself into the ship and punched him, sending him flying to the front of the cabin and upside down in the copilot seat. Neo reared the ship in surprise, lurching them down. Yang fell forward but caught herself between the two pilot seats. Neo looked back at Yang and then at Roman, her eyes screaming at him to deal with this because her hands were too full right now!

Yang caught her breath and looked at the dashboard. A set of specific coordinates were imputed to the ship’s GPS, and her gauntlets were sitting in the cupholders.

Roman kicked Yang across the face, hurting his foot more than anything. He screamed in pain and made a grab for his cane that’d fallen under the seat. Yang went to grab him, but Roman got to her weapon first and shot her with his cane, grazing her Aura and sending her stumbling to the back of the cabin.

Neo regained some control of the ship as Roman crawled out of the seat and fell onto the floor. Yang charged him again as he shot at her a second time, missing her barely and sending a Dust bolt right out the still open side door. Yang paused for a moment. She couldn’t afford any more hits to her Aura, giving Roman a chance to climb to her feet and swing his cane at her. Yang caught it with one hand and with the other punched him in the chest. Roman gasped and fell to the ground.

Leaving Roman where he was, Yang ran up to the pilot seats and grabbed her gauntlets. Neo tried to swat her away, but Yang elbowed her in the face, causing the ship to rear to the left and accelerate over Vale.

Yang kept her balance and put on Ember and Celica. She walked back to Roman and stood over him. He looked up at her as Yang said, “Tell me _everything_ you know about The Bandit.”

A shot rang out. Yang turned and dodged a second shot from the pilot. Neo had pulled out a pistol from under the seat and was reaching behind her and shooting back at Yang. Yang dodged another shot by jumping to one side of the cabin as Roman got back on his feet and clung to a handrail. One hand on the controls, Neo pointed the gun at Yang, who shotgun blasted back at her, missing but putting a massive hole in the dashboard and shattering the windshield.

Glass rained backward into the cabin as the ship started spinning out of control. “Shit!” Roman screamed as he tried to pull himself up to the co-pilot seat.  The engine lights flashed as every alarm on the dashboard rang. Neo tightened her seat buckle as the ship spun out of control. Yang couldn’t keep her footing and flew back towards the open door in the side of the cabin.

Yang reached to grab the railing.

She missed.

“Oh not again!”

Yang was flung out of the airship. The ship got smaller and smaller above her as the alarms and engine noise faded, replaced by the sound of the wind flying past her body. It wasn’t just wind though. Yang was plummeting from the sky, and this time she didn’t have a ship below her to break her fall.

Turning her body around to face the ground, Yang saw Vale beneath her, seeing more and more details on the tallest buildings at an alarming rate. She spread out her arms to try and slow her descent. Free falling from an airship, even at full Aura, was certain death. And her Aura was already on the edge. Even with her unique Semblance amplifying her power, she'd be crushed before her Aura even shattered.

Looking over her shoulder, Yang saw that Neo had managed to course correct her ship, but it was slowly spinning down deep into the Emerald Forest. Yang looked back down and scanned the city below her. She was falling towards the edge of the residential district in the middle of the city. It only took a couple of seconds to find what she was looking for: the river. If she could angle herself and slow down, with the last of her Semblance amplified Aura, she might survive the landing.

Leaning to the right, Yang shot one of her gauntlets to propel her in line with a straight stretch of the river beneath her, hoping it was also deep enough for survival. Yang had made plenty of high fall Aura landings at Signal and Beacon. Just like in training, she told herself. It's just that in training, she'd never made a landing at this speed or, you know, from the _sky!_

_If I survive this I’m never stepping on an airship EVER again_ , Yang thought.

The green glow of the CCTS tower was high above her; the river only a second or two away. Her Aura was weak, but if she just pulled up and focused its remaining power into her--

The river hit Yang like a train. Her limp body plunged deep into the inky water. The glowing energy around her body crackled as it shattered and floated up and away from her. She reached out towards it as it faded from sight. Yang’s eyes closed and everything went dark as the water swallowed her.

 

* * *

 

    Crescent Rose and Gambol Shroud clashed, the metallic clang masked by the gunfire and explosions just outside the cafeteria hall windows. In the occasional pause of fast combat between Ruby and Blake, they could hear fighting between Atlas troops, Atlesian Knights and White Fang outside. It sounded like chaos out there. An orange glow filled the hall from the Dust fire outside, but as aware of the battle around her as she was, Ruby had her own opponent and wasn’t going to get distracted.

Ruby swiped her scythe at Blake. She swung again and spun around for a third attack which Blake jumped back from to avoid. Ruby glared at Blake as she landed. Blake held out both her weapon and her sheath, ready to defend. Ruby growled through her teeth, pulled her scythe towards Blake and pulled the trigger. A sniper round hit the edge of Blake’s Aura, still enough to take a chunk out of it.

Blake tsked, trying not to be distracted by the hit before Ruby jumped at her and slammed her scythe down. Blake blocked by crossing her sheath and sword. Ruby yelled as her Aura flared. Both their Aura’s sparked against each other as the tile beneath Blake’s feet shattered from the pressure Ruby was pushing down on her with. Blake managed to push Ruby off. Ruby swung before she even hit the ground, cutting Blake’s image in half. Ruby turned around as a dozen Dust rounds fired at her from across the room. Blake unloaded a full clip at Ruby. After a couple direct hits, Ruby spun her scythe, deflecting the rest of the bullets.

Blake’s gun clicked: Out of ammo. Blake dropped the clip and reloaded.

Breathing heavily, Ruby stared at her opponent. Blake was getting faster between her attacks and sending out illusions. But Ruby was there for that training. She’d taught her to get faster, personally. There was nothing Blake could throw at her she couldn’t see coming.

Blake transformed her weapon into its machete-mode and charged. Ruby charged faster and sliced through the illusion; turned and effortlessly blocked the real attack. The force of their weapons clashing together sent both stepping back from each other where they took a couple of breaths. Waiting for the other to make the first move.

“Why?!” Ruby screamed. “After everything we’ve been through, how could you throw it all away?” Ruby fired another round at Blake, who vanished and reappeared a couple meters to her right. “Why won’t you let me stop this?!”

They clashed again. Their weapons stuck together as they pushed against each other, their faces inches apart. “I’m not trying to stop you from harming the mission, Ruby. You couldn’t even if you tried,” Blake said. “I’m stopping you, because if you went after them you’d get hurt, you idiot!”

“It is literally my job to try.”

“Not if you end up dead!”

“You don’t have to fight for him, Blake,” Ruby said. She tried to smile through gritted teeth. “We can take him together.

“I’m not fighting for him, Ruby! I’m fighting for Faunus. I’ve been fighting for them the entire time.” Blake started gaining the upper hand, forcing Ruby to break off the clash and with a burst of speed zoomed backward.

Ruby frowned.“So everything you said about why you left them was a lie.”

“Yeah, it was,” Blake said, transforming her weapon to its gun form. “Because I knew you’d never understand.” She shot at Ruby.

Ruby sped out of the way and grunted. She charged in against Blake and started wildly swinging. “I. Don’t. Appreciate. That!” she screamed. Ruby managed to duck in time to avoid Blake’s ribbon trying to grapple her scythe out of her hand. “What good does a war do? Things have finally gotten better for Faunus, and you guys will ruin that."

“It hasn’t just _gotten_ better!” Blake yelled. “It got better because Faunus worked for it. Do you know how many times in the last sixty years equality was within our grasp only for it to be taken away from us? It happened over and over again, and humans never gave a shit. Be patient, you say. We have all the time in the world, you say. It’s ALL _BULLSHIT!_ ”

Blake rushed Ruby. Ruby slashed up, getting a big chunk of Blake’s Aura. Blake recovered and slammed her sheath against Ruby’s skull. Ruby fell on her back. Blake dove to tackle her but Ruby kicked her away. She clambered to her feet and swung at Blake to create some distance. Blake caught the end of Ruby’s scythe with her ribbon and smirked. Ruby gripped Crescent Rose’s staff with both hands and hit it against Blake’s face, sending her staggering back.

_I’m taking way too many hits,_ Ruby thought. _Aura’s getting too low._ She looked at Blake; so was hers. Blake wasn’t going to come to her senses on her own. _Let’s see how beating it out of her goes_.

Ruby sped around Blake and kicked at her. Blake blocked it, sending Ruby spinning around. Ruby used the momentum to wrap the pole of her scythe around Blake and pulled towards herself, trapping Blake in a headlock with her weapon.

Blake wriggled against Ruby. She tried to stab behind her, but she couldn’t bend her arm back far enough. She yelled as Ruby tightened the pole against Blake's neck and got pushed down, forcing Blake to her knees.

Ruby leaned against Blake’s Faunus ear. “You and your friends shouldn’t have messed with Hunters.”

“I see you finally found a reason to fight…” Blake gasped for breath.

“Yeah, to stop people like _you_.”

The windows exploded inward from a blast from the battle raging outside. Ruby and Blake were flung away from each other. Ruby's back hit a cafeteria table before she sprawled against the ground. Ruby moved to get up but ducked back against the floor as a row of bullet holes opened up along the walls, as lines of bullets flew right over their heads for a second.

Ruby pushed herself up from the glass and drywall and looked around. _Where’s Blake?_ Ruby thought frantically. _If she got hit then--_

Ruby turned and barely blocked Blake’s next attack.

“Humans will never give us rights, Ruby,” Blake yelled. “The only way is through force. Whether you like it or not, they’re never going to ignore us again after this!” Blake swung again as Ruby blocked.

“You think I don’t get it?” Ruby yelled back. “I’m from a settlement, Blake. It sucks. The Kingdoms suck! But the Hunters protect us. Just like they protect your people.” Ruby pushed back against Blake. They broke apart, and both gasped for air, standing a few steps apart. “What makes you so special that you know what’s right for everyone?!”

Blake flinched. She looked Ruby in the eye. “How do I know?” she said. “I saw the labs.” She took a step towards Ruby. “I saw the camps.” Another step. “I saw the bodies! Every. Last. One. For every Faunus we saved, there were four that we were too late for, their bodies not even cold yet!” She swung at Ruby. “If that’s what you Hunters call protection, then you can take it and go to hell! As for me, I’m done running!” Her weapon struck Ruby’s. “I’m done hiding who I am!” She grabbed Ruby’s wrist and kicked Ruby in the chest. “And I’m done. With. Your. BULLSHIT!” Blake moved in and stabbed Ruby, her Aura taking all the damage.

Ruby grunted from the hit and folded Crescent Rose and shot at Blake’s leg up close, hitting her Aura full on. Blake clenched her teeth and slashed across the Aura at Ruby’s chest. Ruby gripped her scythe and sped around Blake and smacked her across a row of chairs. Ruby sped around her again, using her Semblance more than ever during the fight, attacking faster than Blake could throw out a shadow.

Ruby had to keep going. She had to keep fighting. She was going to beat Blake and prove she was wrong. Ruby had based her entire life around becoming a Hunter, and she wasn't going to let some Faunus stop her now!

That thought caused Ruby to pause for just a moment, and Blake disappeared.

Ruby screamed as she felt Blake slash down her back. Even with her Aura’s protection, feeling it split apart at this stage of weakness hurt. Ruby ducked and spun around with a kick, tripping Blake. She swung her scythe twice against Blake’s Aura. Blake rolled out of the way of the third strike and forced Ruby back by shooting at her.

Ruby sped to the other side of the hall and sniped at Blake from a distance. She shot at the illusion, then at two different locations she thought Blake might reappear. The first location was right, but she was a meter off. Blake flinched from the close call. Ruby sped at Blake but forgot to check her footing. Halfway to Blake, she slipped on some broken glass and lost her balance, tackling into her opponent.

Both of them rolled across the ground and laid a yard apart. Blake and Ruby glared at each other as they slowly struggled to pull themselves up and continue their fight.

Ruby caught her breath and looked at Blake as they both backed away from each other. A purple crack started to appear across Blake’s Aura. _One more hit should be enough to break her,_ Ruby thought. _Then again… one more hit will break mine too._ Ruby could feel it without looking at herself. A red crack had appeared on her own Aura as well.

They stood a dozen meters away from each other. Ruby pulled back Crescent Rose. She couldn’t risk using her Semblance anymore. She adjusted her footing, ready to charge at any moment.

Blake transformed Gamble Shroud into its machete-form and held it in front of her. She bent low, ready to charge at Ruby.

The two made eye contact, both with the same strategy and same conclusion. Ruby turned Crescent Rose’s blade horizontally. Blake twisted her grip on Gamble Shroud’s handle.

Ruby sprinted at Blake.

Blake sprinted at Ruby.

Both screamed as they swung at each other.

The room exploded around them. A Dust explosion ripped apart the wall between them and the battle outside. Both fighters were immersed in a cloud of debris, their final strikes blind.

 

The sound of metal swinging through empty air and energy shattering with a crackle broke the silence of the hall.

The dust started to clear. Ruby and Blake stood facing away from each other, holding their breaths. The light of the shattered moon beamed down on what was left of their battlefield.

“You know… it’s stupid, but, remember that time we were studying the Great War and I asked why Mantel did it?” Ruby asked. “You told me that they never planned on losing? I get it now. They thought they were changing the world for the better, and it didn’t matter who they had to hurt or abandon to make it happen.”

Ruby’s hand slipped. Crescent Rose hit the ground with a metallic thud.

“The Kingdoms… Ozpin… Me… We’re not going to be on the right side of this, are we?”

Blake lifted her head towards the night sky. “No,” she said. “You’re not.”

The dust cleared as Blake turned back towards Ruby. The red glow around her body was gone. Blake's Aura cracked with a popping noise but stayed strong. She looked at Ruby and walked towards her. With every step, she straightened her posture and held her head up more. She walked past Ruby and headed towards the exit to follow her team.

Ruby stood alone at the center of the hall, staring at the rubble at her feet. The sound of gunfire and clashes of metal around her winded down. Her crimson cloak flapped in the wind, beating against Ruby’s motionless form.


	20. Now Hiring

“Seventy years ago, after our rebellion to force all of Remnant to acknowledge essential Faunus cooperation in Vale’s victory in The Great War, your governments swore to give our people territory and a voice equal to any of the Kingdoms. Seventy years later, and we are still silenced. Now, we of the White Fang have been left with no alternative but to take what is owed!”

The voice of Sienna Khan boomed through the city square. The jumbotron, once used for Kingdom announcements and weather reports now displayed the image of the White Fang’s leader. She stood in front of a White Fang flag, casting a red light onto the city below her. Khan’s golden earrings drew attention to her Faunus features; the tattoos down her bare shoulders and arms resembled tiger stripes, emphasizing her animal trait. Nothing about her appearance could let someone ignore her Faunus nature. Her presence exuded pride in who she was and what her role as the White Fang leader meant.

Weiss looked up at the large screen. The recording was being broadcast from Beacon Tower. As of this morning, the Faunus had partial control of CCTS network, had claimed full responsibility for the attack on Beacon, and launched a propaganda campaign focused on rallying anti-Kingdom sentiment. The other humans standing in the street around Weiss were frozen in place staring up at the transmission. From their faces, if Khan and the White Fang’s goal was to intimidate the world, she was doing a hell of a job.

"Our victory has given us unfiltered access to the CCTS network and proof that your governments support Faunus slavery and monstrous experimentations. Proof that the Kingdoms withhold resources that could be used to protect settlements, Faunus and human alike. Proof that every Faunus has known their whole lives.

“But we do not expect you to believe or side with us. Humans have proven time and time again that they will not help us. Even though we are at war--and this is war--your people deserve to know the truth. You deserve to know who you are fighting for.

“Beacon Academy is now our territory. With the firepower of the Atlas fleet, now in our control, if anyone tries to take Beacon from us, we will unleash hell onto your CCTS network and cripple the Kingdoms. Know that we only demand respect. If that is achieved through fear, then so be it.”

The screen cut to the emblem of the White Fang before switching back to the constant news reports on the Beacon Academy attack. Reporter Lisa Lavender and her crew were scrambling to figure out what was happening now that the White Fang’s leader had spoken on the attack and dropped the latest mortifying development: that the Atlas fleet was also under Faunus control.

_That didn’t last long,_ Weiss thought. The Atlas Military wanted to keep that part of the fiasco hidden as long as they could, preferably until they could find a way to regain control of their ships. Not that it was realistic.

Last night in Beacon’s temporary dorm, Weiss was having a hard time sleeping when Winter called. She was out of breath and making sure that Weiss was okay more than anything. The following conversation Winter explained what had happened from the power outage to the Atlesian Knights hack and White Fang takeover. She and Ironwood had managed to escape with a handful of Atlas officers and Ozpin.

Getting any sleep was basically impossible after that. Weiss spent the rest of that night and early morning watching Vale news streams which were constant reports on what was happening at Beacon; trying to find any information she could while Winter called every couple hours to give Weiss updates on the situation. Her home for the last few months had been ripped from her, and it didn’t feel real. Beacon had always been a constant presence looking over Vale, but now it felt like someplace far away and alien.

The usual morning crowds were almost nonexistent as Weiss walked at a quick pace down the gray streets. The Vale and Atlas officials who had escaped the battle recovered in the east wing of Vale’s central hospital, and had set up their new base of operations there overnight. From the calls with her sister, she knew Winter was all right, but she needed to see the person she’d been notified had been fished out of the river earlier that morning.

The front of the hospital was swarming with reporters trying to get any inside information on the battle. Weiss pushed through them, and after a long series of security checkpoints and a couple questions to the receptionist, now an Atlas soldier helping direct people through the chaos, Weiss headed up to the floor where they were keeping patients. She found the room number and entered without knocking.

Yang was sitting up in her medical bed wearing a hospital gown and talking on her Scroll. Her left arm was in a sling and medical tape covered scrapes and bruises all over her body. Weiss was expecting her to look a lot worse. On the way over, thoughts of Yang in a coma or worse filled her head, but she looked like she’d just gotten more roughed up than usual.

“Yeah, we all got evacuated before the fighting started,” Yang said into the Scroll. She looked over at Weiss when she entered but then focused back on the call. Weiss quietly closed the door behind her and stood patiently at the other end of the room.

“Ruby’s not here right now,” Yang said into her Scroll. “She’s fine Dad. It’s just a little crazy here.”

She laughed at something said on the other end of the line and winced in pain, but managed to keep her dad from hearing it.

"Is that what people have been saying back home? It's only Beacon, Dad. The rest of the city is fine.

“No, you’re good. Me and Ruby are going to get back to Patch as soon as we can.”

Yang and Ruby’s father probably wanted to get over here to see them. Weiss understood how he felt, but he couldn’t even if he wanted to. Winter had told Weiss over one of her calls that Vale was on total lockdown. No one was getting in or out right now. Ships were already being turned away and any transport from a settlement, even a human one, wouldn’t be allowed in.

“Okay, I’ll keep you up to date,” she said. “Love you too, Dad.” Yang ended the call and sighed.

“How are you feeling?” Weiss asked.

“Like I got dropped out of a plane.” Yang groaned as she leaned back in her bed. “Without this Semblance, I’d be super dead.”

“As opposed to a little dead?” Weiss sat down in a chair by Yang’s bedside. “How bad did Ruby get hurt?”

“She hasn’t called you either?”

“No?”

“Damn it!” Yang looked away.

“Is she okay?”

“I don’t know!” Yang snapped. She exhaled to calm herself down. “She disappeared right before the fight broke out.”

“Well, did they capture her?”

“Nope,” Yang said. She pulled up a list on her Scroll. “The White Fang just released a list of every Atlas soldier and Hunter they have as hostages, as well as a short list of casualties during the battle. Ruby’s not on either. So she’s fine. Probably turn up sometime.”

Weiss looked over the list. She didn’t recognize any of the Atlas names, but both Professor Peach and Oobleck were captured and being ransomed back to Vale. She double checked for Ruby’s name just in case.

“It’s not like Ruby just to go silent like this,” Weiss said.

“I know…”

Weiss folded her arms. “So you just lied to your father.”

“He doesn't need to worry,” Yang said.

“This is ridiculous!” Weiss said. “What the hell really happened over there?” Weiss started.

“A lot of stuff, okay? Get off my--” Yang cut herself off and calmed down again. “Sorry, I… Can I have a minute? I’m tired. It’s been a weird… couple days. I just need some rest. Get my Aura running again so I can get this stupid thing off.” She wiggled her immobilized left arm.

Weiss looked down. As much as she was desperate to know more, she shouldn’t have jumped into interrogation mode. It was just... if Yang could get hurt this bad, who knows what could have happened to Ruby.

“Sure,” Weiss said, getting up from her chair and headed for the door. She turned at the last moment. “Call if you need anything,” Weiss said.

Yang nodded, and Weiss closed the door behind her.

 

* * *

 

Just like that, she was alone. Yang stared forward at the hospital room in front of her. The bed and all its buttons and adjustments. The vase and color of the paint on the wall to sooth the patient. The button right next to her that would call the nurse for (they assured her) any reason. Even the remote to the screen on the wall across from her, barely out of reach on the table by her bed. Everything in this room made her feel weak.

Yang clenched her fist and activated her Aura. A tingle like static electricity from her sheets covered her body for a moment before it rebound back into herself, causing a sudden pain that left Yang gasping for breath. Summoning an Aura while it was still too weak would cause it to shatter immediately, and the attempt left Yang exhausted. She felt like she was going to vomit up the little breakfast the doctor had forced her to eat.

Not even thinking about it, she reached over to the button to summon the nurse, but paused.

_Useless,_ she thought. She couldn’t even do the one thing she was trained to do.

Ruby was gone. Yang had lied to Weiss; she had no idea what was going on. She didn't know if Ruby was dead, captured or worse.

Yang broke down crying. No one was around today. No one to pretend to. No one to protect. The person she had to do those things for was gone, and she was too weak to even vent her frustration by punching something. Too weak to even distract herself.

Months ago, Yang rushed into this same hospital after practically crashing her motorcycle into the doorway. Goodwitch had called and told her that Ruby'd been hurt on a training hunt with Weiss. Yang raced through the hall toward the emergency care ward. The image of a closed casket being lowered into a cliffside grave pounded at the front of her brain.

“Where’s Ruby?!” she yelled at the first doctor she could find.

“Are you the sister?” the doctor asked calmly, tired from a long day.

“What happened to her?!”

“She has an abdominal stab wound and is--” the doctor started explaining a patient’s condition like he’d done hundreds of times. Yang didn’t take it well.

Yang’s Aura flared as she grabbed the poor man and pushed him up against the closest wall, shattering drywall and knocking down a pinboard. “WHERE?!”

He weakly pointed to a nearby door, and Yang barged in. Ruby wasn’t conscious yet. She was lying in a medical bed attached to wires and tubes. Yang looked on helplessly and took a seat, refusing to be ushered out by the staff.

When Ruby pretended that everything was fine and decided to rescue Weiss, Yang went along and pretended with her. She sacrificed her favor from Junior and pretended like they were on a grand adventure to rescue a princess. And did a damn good job at it too.

Yang pushed through the next couple of months as best she could. It all started to break down with that stupid fight. Neo kicked the shit out of her on one of the vigilante patrols and Yang fell unconscious when her friend's lives--Ruby’s life--was in danger. After all that, she still managed to put on a smile.

Finally getting herself back together by the end of the semester and passing the final tests, Yang was ready to continue a normal school life as a Hunter-in-training. Then the breach happened, and she was still able to pretend to be the big sister of the group.

Her partner left her. Still able to hold it together.

In a battle for her school. Her home. Her future. And she couldn’t even protect that. It was almost karmic punishment that she would fail to protect Ruby as well. All those years of sharing what she was learning at Signal. Training her for the future. Protecting her…

Ten years for nothing.

Ten years and she’d made the exact same mistake. She dragged Ruby to the Grimm’s den and left her there. Just this time it was in slow motion. All the times she ignored the temptation to run away again and look for her mom across the sea, she went through with it because Ruby would be alone. For nothing.

Ten years and Yang was still just a defenseless child. Alone.

Yang breathed heavily and gripped the sheets around her, desperate for a foundation. But there was only one thing left.

She frantically grabbed for her Scroll and typed in a set of coordinates. A map of Remnant appeared on the screen and narrowed past the mountains east of Vale to the other side of the continent. It was a good distance out of Vale's territory, but Grimm levels weren't that bad. If Yang remembered correctly, there were a couple settlements in that area. She linked her Scroll to any news she could find from out that way. The only thing she could find after delving through the network was an obscure article on a small Faunus settlement. She checked the map again and typed in the name of the settlement, Snowdale. It was at the coordinates from Neo and Roman's ship. The location of her mother.

Yang stared at the map for another minute and clutched it like a liferaft in a storm.

 

* * *

 

“Damn,” Weiss muttered to herself as she walked away from the section of the building that was remaining a hospital. Now that her concern over Yang’s condition had been alleviated, her frustration at her team had returned. First Blake and now Ruby had disappeared. She’d bet anything that Blake was there during the battle. Yang was hiding something, but Weiss was too busy sitting in a dorm far away from the action to understand anything. It made her want to storm the school herself to get answers.

Weiss made her way up a couple floors to the offices that had been turned into a makeshift command center. She had to go through another security checkpoint, but they knew she was coming so it wasn't nearly as long of a background check that some of the others she saw in line needed. After passing through a metal detector and a couple hallways, it didn't take long for Weiss to spot her sister directing the swarm of people around the office.

“Get phones up here. Every desk needs a Scroll.” Winter turned to someone else and yelled. “Call Sargent Indigo! Tell him to contact the media and clarify those bastards on some things. Damn it, where’s the…” Winter spotted Weiss and dropped everything. She rushed towards Weiss and hugged her.

“You okay?” Weiss asked.

“Yeah. We got hit a little hard when they surprised us at the tower, but I’m fine,” Winter said.

Weiss could from Winter’s singed uniform that the fight was harder and longer than she made it sound. Winter broke the hug and quickly sent a glare to her underlings who got back to work to give Winter and Weiss a moment. “You’re staying with me from now on. I already set up an apartment nearby. That all right?”

“Yes, completely,” Weiss said. She needed someone familiar right now. It was also close to Yang. If that meant anything. Weiss started asking Winter about what had happened to her teammate. “Yang wasn’t very talkative about it other than what you said about her falling from an airship.”

Winter told her what Yang had reported during her quick debriefing. That Yang had seen the device the White Fang used to broadcast their hacking signal across the fleet and barely escaped via skydiving without a parachute. “A Vale citizen pulled her out of the river early this morning. We picked her up as soon as we heard. Somehow she survived that fall. She’s had good training.”

Weiss nodded. She looked around the command center. It was not fully organized, but it was hard to believe they’d only started operating out of there a couple hours ago. “You all set up fast,” Weiss commented.

“There’s still a lot of work to do. The office needs a reliable connection to the network, and we need a line to the councils and the media. The medical floor and the landing pads above us already being here helped but we won’t be able to start renovating the floor beneath us into cells for interrogation for another few hours.”

“Cells?” Weiss asked.  She hadn’t expected that to be a priority in this situation.

Winter nodded. “Ironwood’s orders. We want to handle this as close as possible.”

“You think you’ll actually catch anyone?”

“No one important. Taurus is holed up in what used to be _our_ flagship, and Khan isn’t even on the continent. Rumor has it that she’s with the rest of the White Fang’s force near Mistral.”

“Damn it!”

Ironwood burst out of a doorway into the main office space. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at the general.

“Get that screen on. Now!” Ironwood yelled at a scrambling worker. “ _Now!_ ”

The TV turned on, showing Lavender reporting on some of the documents that the White Fang found and released through their new connection to the CCTS. Ironwood cursed. His right arm spasmed against his side, making a noise like a motor shredding. He grabbed it and groaned in pain.

“You need immediate maintenance, sir,” Winter said with a touch of concern.

“I’m fine!” he snapped.

“Yes sir,” Winter said.

“Is no one controlling your media, Oz!” Ironwood yelled back to the office he burst out of.

“The council just heard about it as well,” Ozpin said as he and Professor Amber walked through the doorway and rejoined the general. Ozpin was just hanging up his Scroll and putting it away in his jacket pocket. “They’re shutting it down now.” Everyone in the office turned towards the screen as the station got the phone call just as the reporter started talking about Hunter fatality rates that weren’t supposed to be public. The broadcast abruptly changed to a commercial.

“Too late,” Ozpin said.

“This is a mess, Oz,” Ironwood said.

“You think I don't know that, James?” Ozpin said losing his cool. “Those are my secrets too.”

Amber handed Ozpin a Scroll that showed the damage was spread all over the network. “The concern among the citizens is how many Hunters of all people were captured by the White Fang. Our competence is in question,” Amber said.

“Damn,” Ozpin said. “They were nonlethal on purpose.”

“At least they’re ransoming them?” Weiss chimed in but regretted it. This conversation was way above her position. She probably shouldn't even be hearing it. Luckily, no one seemed to mind.

"They're mocking us," Ironwood said. "Winter, tech report."

Winter handed him a clipboard. “Just as we suspected. Queen was behind the hijack.”

“Shit,” Ironwood said.

“Somehow she got access to the source codes and rewrote them with a virus. From our analysis and Yang’s… Miss Xiao Long’s report, they infected the flagship and used it to spread the virus to all Atlas software in range.”

“Can any be salvaged?”

“No,” Winter said. "We're working on a way to counter the program so this can never happen again, but all the tech that's been infected is lost."

Ozpin turned to Winter, anger and spite in his voice when he said, “Tell me, Officer Schnee, how poor is Atlas’s security to let a leak as big as your damn source codes get to the White Fang?”

Winter lifted her head and refused to look away from the headmaster.

Ironwood stepped in to defend his subordinate. “She oversees those, Oz.”

“Then she oversaw the blindspot that cost me my school!” Ozpin growled.

_That wasn’t fair,_ Weiss thought. Weiss took a step towards her old headmaster, but Winter sent her a glance. Weiss stepped down.

Ozpin seemed to also recognize the indignity of his outburst. He lowered his head and gripped his cane. “Apologies, General.”

“Sure,” Ironwood said. He moved away and started talking to some of his officers to see how close they were before the command center fully operational.

Ozpin sighed and turned to Weiss, Professor Amber silently shadowing him. “Miss Schnee, it is good to see you safe.”

"You as well, Headmaster," Weiss said. She'd never seen him hysterical before. Situations like this, she understood why it would be hard to keep appearances, but even then it was hard to pretend his outburst didn't happen. "I heard about Peach and Oobleck," Weiss steered away from her thoughts.

“Those of us that got out in time only sustained a few injuries. I hope the same for them. Port and Goodwitch got the worst of the battle and are being treated. Professor Amber, as you can see, has replaced Goodwitch’s role for now.”

Amber glared at the headmaster but stayed silent.

“Have you been contacted by Miss Rose yet?” Ozpin asked.

“No sir,” Weiss said.

Ozpin inhaled sharply. He must have guessed that, but the news still hurt. “We need to find her,” Ozpin said. “If she’s not in the city then she must still be on campus.”

Winter chimed in, “If she’s there, then they released the name of everyone they have hostage but not a fifteen-year-old child? Why would they do that?”

“Then... where’s Ruby?” Weiss asked.

 

* * *

 

The grass was slick after a brief early morning rainfall in the Emerald Forest, making it impossible for the Beowolf dragging itself across the ground to claw away. Its bottom half had been cleaved off, and weak howls of pain interrupted the quiet forest around it. With a metallic crunch, Ruby slammed her scythe through the remaining body and impaled it into the earth. The forest fell silent once more.

Ruby stood over the corpse, her hood covering her eyes. Dark smoke rose around her as she left the body behind with barely a second thought. Her Aura had barely started to recover, but she still could take out a lone Grimm easily without it. Crescent Rose dug through the earth behind her, dragging up a thin trail of dirt and dead pine needles. The edge of her cloak caught a branch in passing and ripped. The battle last night and her trek through the forest hadn't been kind to her battered memento. She stumbled forward, further into the woods, exhausted like she hadn't slept in days.

After her duel with Blake, Ruby didn’t know what to do with herself and had ended up walking away from the battle at Beacon. Before she knew it, Ruby was in familiar Grimm hunting territory. It’d already been twelve hours since she started wandering in circles around the Emerald Forest, and she wasn't planning on heading back anytime soon. After all that, she just wanted to be left alone so she could think.

All the heroes in the storybooks, the tournaments, the image that Hunters put up around themselves, Ruby knew they were unrealistic, but she always wanted to believe that there was a shard of truth she could fit into. Weiss’s words from months ago slithered around her head:

“ _Where I come from, storybook heroes are impossible.”_

Ruby had responded with optimism back then to assure Weiss her goal was possible. But Weiss was right. Ruby becoming that picturesque hero was impossible. A cold weight gnawed in her stomach.

She’d acted like a lunatic in her fight against Blake. She’d put everything in that final strike, Everything she believed in and right before that defining hit in the middle of the blast cloud, Ruby had a thought: What if Blake was right?

And then she lost. Ruby’s Aura shattered, and as she stood there, the loser, failing to change anything, her thought continued: What if they weren't a bug in the system? What if they were going to win. What would that make her?

The rise in White Fang support in recent years. Their undeniable results. The size of the operation taking over Beacon. In a strange moment of clarity, Ruby realized that the Hunter’s legacy could become like Mantle. A unified Remnant replaced the world Mantle represented after The Great War. What would the White Fang replace? What would Hunters be in that world?

Another thought clawed around Ruby’s skull. One that refused to leave her for hours while she walked farther and farther away from Vale, deep into the base of the mountains:

_Why did Summer die?_

Summer Rose, in even Pyrrha’s words, was the ultimate Hunter. A legend back in her day. _In that world where Hunter’s aren’t the heroes,_ Ruby thought, _what would happen to Summer? What did she die for?_

Ruby hated the thought. She didn’t want to think about it, question it, legitimize it. The idea that Summer died for nothing disgusted her. It made her ashamed she didn’t chase after Blake after the fight and tear away the last of her Aura with her bare hands. Her thoughts didn’t compute together, a paradox swirling in her head like a tornado.

“Fuck!” A voice separate from Ruby screamed.

Ruby turned towards the yell. After another moment she heard it again, some ways past the trees to her right with some clanks of metal. The only thing in that direction was a creek, but metal? Ruby thought. Ruby shifted her dragging feet towards the ruckus to investigate who it was who had interrupted her “wander of despair” through the forest.

Ruby walked up to a small ledge and looked down at the small creek. A small airship was crashed in it, and two unfortunately familiar figures trying to salvage or repair whatever was left.

“Whelp,” Roman said. “I’m no mechanic. But it’s fucked.”

Neo dropped a heavy engine piece and glared at Roman. She was wearing an Atlas uniform.

_She must’ve busted Roman out during the attack,_ Ruby realized.

Neo pointed to the ship and made a violent motion that looked like she was tearing something apart before an obvious _“Why?”_ motion at her partner.

“Did you have a better idea?” Roman asked.

Neo humphed and walked over to where they stacked all the gear they pulled from the wreck and grabbed a duffle bag. She made a motion that looked like a ship crashing and then quickly spelled something.

_V?_ Ruby guessed. _Vale? Something about not crashing into Vale?_

Neo unbuttoned her uniform top and threw it into the creek before she started unbuckling her pants.

_Huh,_ Ruby thought. _Bigger than I thought. And boxers. Who knew?_ She rested Crescent Rose against her shoulder.

“And now we’re stuck in the middle of the forest and who knows which way’s what!” Roman yelled back, not even flinching at Neo getting undressed in the middle of the forest.

Ruby stared down at the pair. They were completely unaware of her presence, just begging to be smacked in the back of their heads and tied up as she chuckled, victorious.

Looking at them like this, she felt more like a voyeur than a hero of justice, and it wasn’t like arresting them now would actually change anything.

_I don’t want to deal with this,_ Ruby thought. _What’s even the point?_

Neo put on the pants and boots that Ruby was used to seeing her wear. She made a series of "loud" and violent signs in Roman's direction. Ruby was pretty sure this was her equivalent of shouting.

“My fight? I’m pretty sure she was trying to kill _both_ of us! I’m surprised she hasn’t hunted us down yet. It’s this piece of shit ships fault. They call this a favor?!” Roman started kicking the totaled hunk of metal and ranted about some sort of deal.

Neo rolled her eyes and turned to grab her shirt and jacket from the pile of gear, and happened to look up at the ledge and red cloaked figure above them.

Roman followed her gaze, and his rant quickly winded down to silence.

Ruby blankly stared down at the pair.

The creek bubbled between them.

Neo and Roman slowly started to raise their hands in surrender.

Ruby turned and started walking down the ledge towards the creek and away from the crash. Neo and Roman looked at each other in confusion as Ruby jumped down into the stream and turned her back on them.

A knock on the hull of the ship caused Ruby to turn around. Neo, still only wearing her bra for a top, was getting her attention.  She raised an eyebrow and pointed at Ruby and quickly signed an “o” into a sign where she pointed her index finger and her middle finger forward with her thumb up between them.”

“Not going to beat us up or arrest us or something?” Roman asked. His hands were still up in the air.

“Don’t care,” Ruby said.

Roman lowered his arms and snapped his fingers in her direction. “Okay then have fun!” He waved goodbye and turned back towards the ship. But before he could collect anything and start running into the woods, his Scroll started to ring.

He looked at the number. “Oh shit,” he whined.  Roman looked at Neo. “It’s the boss.”

Neo’s face contorted with dread.

Roman answered the Scroll. “Hey, boss! Yeah… Yep. We are having some… car trouble… Look… Yes, but… We can get there as soon as possible. Just not today. That works. Seven days? No more. Promise. Yes, ma’am. Absolutely!” His expression dropped at something said on the other end.

Ruby wasn't sure why she stuck around through the call other than morbid curiosity. It was almost interesting seeing them in a situation where she wasn’t trying to capture them.

“Yes, boss. Thank you, boss.” He hung up and turned to Neo. “We’re dead. She’s going to kill us this time.”

Neo signed a question.

“Yeah, less than seven days to get there. We’re dead.”

Neo signed her fingers walking across her palm.

“Walk? Are you crazy? One: We don't know where we are. Two: Grimm country. And three… Just screw it that’s ridiculous we would need a guide back to civilization and I sure as hell am not going back to Vale in about… forever!”

Neo signed another suggestion.

“Like who?!” Roman asked.

Neo turned towards Ruby. Ruby raised an eyebrow, she was mostly following the conversation but was a little distracted there at the end by trying to decipher Neo’s hand movements. Neo turned back towards Roman and smiled.

Roman looked at Ruby and then at Neo. “No! Are you crazy!”

Neo turned towards Ruby and signed something. Ruby only recognized one that she’d seen Neo throw in her direction in the past: the motion of her index finger down the middle of her lips.

Ruby tilted her head. “What?”

Neo grinned and started splashing (and still half naked, Ruby couldn’t help but notice) across the creek towards Ruby. She pulled out a Scroll from her pocket and quickly typed a sentence. She pointed the screen to Ruby’s face. Ruby squinted, it wasn’t easy to read with outside light, but Neo had clearly typed: _“Would you be our guide out of here?”_

“What?!!!” Ruby shouted.

“See,” Roman said.

Neo typed some more: _“Roman and I are useless when it comes to wilderness travel, and I’m good at fighting people, not Grimm. We found some survival shit and equipment in the ship we could bring. I think there’s a fold-up tent and everything. We’ll pay you generously once we get to our location.”_

Roman was in his own world. “You can’t just ask the… Red? Really?” Roman said flabbergasted.

Neo turned back to her accomplice and typed: _“Do you have a better idea?”_

“At least I don’t have BAD ideas!”

Neo started signing something back to Roman, and Ruby sighed.

It didn’t matter, and honestly, it was better than going back to Vale right now and facing her failure. By the time they got to wherever they were going, Ruby might even find the justification she needed to capture them. Get this boss of theirs too. Might even regain her confidence, or rather her senses.

“Sure,” Ruby sighed.

Roman gestured towards her “See she’s not interested, so let’s leave the poor child alo--huh?”

“Which way?” Ruby asked.

_“Really?”_ Neo typed.

“ _Really?_ ” Roman’s voice cracked.

“Yeah, sure, why not? Where are you two going?”

“Ah...” Roman was speechless. “A settlement at the east end of the continent.”

Ruby looked east and frowned. Getting through the mountains would only be the beginning of the trip. It would depend on how far east, but if it was near the settlements she’d heard of… _Seven days? Yeah, that’s doable,_ she thought. _If these two can make it._

“Alright,” Ruby said. She walked over to the pile of gear next to the ship and grabbed some ammo for her rifle before she picked through the supplies as Neo put on her shirt and corset behind her. “Keep up,” Ruby said, turning around with everything she needed. “I’ll show you the way and keep Grimm off your butts, but I’m not carrying you.” Ruby started walking upstream.

Neo scrambled back to the pile, grabbed a backpack, duffle bag and her jacket, and ran to catch up to Ruby. She walked alongside her along the bank of the creak and typed: _“Good to have you on the team!”_

Ruby didn’t really know how to take that. At the very least she did not like it.

Roman loudly sighed, accepting that this was what the next few days of his life looked like. He grabbed two duffle bags, and ran to catch up with the group. “Well, this is certainly an interesting turn.”

“Funny,” Ruby said. “You didn’t mention you were paying me to talk to you.”

“Well fuck you too, Red.”

Neo typed at her accomplice: _“Play nice!”_ She turned to Ruby and wrote: _“I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”_

Ruby looked at the two criminals walking at her side and raised an eyebrow. _What have I gotten myself into?_


	21. All I Have Left...

Weiss paused at the entrance of the playground. The grass around the park was dead, its faded color mixing in with the saturated overcast sky and gray buildings. On the far wall across from Weiss, like it was framed by the grey city in front of her, was a large red graffiti of a White Fang emblem.

Glancing up between the buildings to the west, Beacon Academy still stood in the distance, the same as it always had. However, it no longer felt like it was part of the city. It no longer felt like the tower watched over the Kingdom below it. The fleet of once Atlas ships hovering just outside of campus was a constant reminder of that fact. To Weiss, and she guessed all of Vale’s citizens, looking up at the tower now felt like looking out of the walls of a city under siege.

The break from her walk was interrupted by shouting down the street. Weiss looked to her left to see a Vale citizen being intercepted by two Vale Security Troopers. They stopped the man and were aggressively asking him questions. One of the troopers took off the man’s beanie to make sure he wasn’t hiding Faunus ears as the other pat him down. Weiss quickly and quietly walked past them on the other side of the street, overhearing some of the interrogation: Were they born in the Kingdom? Were they from a settlement? Did they have family from a settlement? Weiss avoided eye-contact and managed to round the corner without turning their attention.

Vale was under siege alright. The real question was: Under siege from whom?

The temporary dorm for Beacon’s students was a rectangular building that didn't stand out much in this part of the residential district. Weiss walked inside to an empty lobby. Not very many students were left. Just a handful of teams who couldn’t leave the Kingdom yet and didn’t have anywhere else to go. Weiss headed to the back of the building where the kitchen was, where Velvet, in a message a minute ago, said she and Coco were.

Weiss walked into the dining area. The kitchen was off to the side with the coffee maker, a toaster, a pile of bagels, etc. were sitting out on the counter next to a wooden table where Velvet and Coco were talking over their morning coffee. 

Weiss knocked on the door to let them know she was there. “Hi…”

Velvet stood up, walked over to Weiss and gave her a hug. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Just tired.” Weiss said before breaking the embrace.

“You want some coffee?” Velvet asked. “We just heated up a pot.”

“Yes please.” Weiss walked over to the coffee maker and poured herself a large cup.

Coco turned and leaned against the back of her chair. “You look like you’ve already had a busy day.”

“I went to go see Yang again, but the base is still crawling with reporters sandwiched between opposing protest groups, so it’s a mess.” Weiss sighed and tried to sip her coffee but burnt her tongue.

“Tell Yang to get back on her feet for me next time you see her, would ya?” Coco said.

“Absolutely,” Weiss said. _ If she responds to my messages that is, _ Weiss thought. Since their brief conversation yesterday, Yang hadn't said a word to Weiss through their Scrolls and today's visit had the same lackluster results.

The coffee was finally cool enough, so Weiss leaned against the counter and sipped at it while Velvet sat back down next to Coco. “Anyway,” Coco said to wrap up her and Velvet’s previous conversation, “I’ll make sure my brother lets us know if anything opens up.”

“You guys planning something?” Weiss asked.

“Rumor is that Vale is going to let a couple trains in and out of the city in a couple days,” Coco said. “My brother knows some guys, so he’s going to let us know beforehand, so we get a chance to get out of here.”

“You’re leaving?”

“We’re,” Velvet paused mid-speech, “just trying to figure out our options.”

“What about you?” Coco asked. “What are you planning?”

"Half my team is missing, and everything else is a mess,” Weiss said, “so I'm going to stay put with Winter. I need the opposite of action right now." Not that she’d seen any, but Winter had been pretty forward about wanting her sister to stay close, and Weiss was not complaining. She needed stability, not traveling the world.

At that moment, Team JNPR walked into the kitchen area. The conversation died down once they saw Weiss. She ignored them, turning towards Velvet and Coco, hoping that the inevitable question from Ruby’s friends wouldn’t be asked.

As the rest of his team grabbed some muffins for breakfast, Jaune walked up to Weiss. “Hey, how you holding up?”

“Fine,” Weiss said. She didn’t have anything against Jaune and company. Ruby and Yang always got along with them more than she did. Sure, she tried, but it never took off. Usually, that wouldn’t annoy her, but right now, they were just a stupid reminder.

“We’re here if you need anything,” Pyrrha said.

“I’m good.” Weiss had expected something about whether or not she’d heard from Ruby and was surprised that wasn’t where they went first.

Jaune was the first to start asking annoying questions though. “You hear anything from your sister about what’s going on? Ruby mentioned she worked for General Ironwood.”

“I don't know anything you don’t,” Weiss said, lying of course. She was pretty sure they didn’t want to hear that Vale wasn’t planning a counter attack. Not enough information and the stakes were too high without a plan. Even Ozpin’s immediate concern was getting back captured faculty. Weiss just wanted to ignore talking about Beacon’s occupation, but JNPR had already started talking among themselves about it like Weiss was a willing participant. A glance to the table showed that Coco and Velvet would rather not hear the gossip and speculation for the umpteenth time either.

“I heard that Atlas is sending another fleet down to help Vale do some strikes against White Fang bases in the settlements,” Pyrrha said.

“Good,” Jaune said. “I mean, they haven't announced it yet, but everyone knows that they caused the breach to destabilize Vale.”

“I don't care who you are,” Nora said, “You cause a breach, you’re going down!” She punched her fist into her hand, and Ren nodded.

“I just wish we could do something to help,” Jaune said. “It’s weird looking up at Beacon now. I don’t even recognize it. It’s scary.”

Pyrrha nodded. “My whole life I’ve been training to become a Hunter, I was raised for it, and it’s falling apart. I just wish I could have helped prevent all this.”

“It’s not our fault,” Jaune said.

“But if we were there we could have done something, anything!” Pyrrha sighed. “Your right. I just wish we could prove that we haven't been trained for nothing.”

“Hell yeah!” Nora said. “Can’t keep a Hunter down. Shouldn’t have messed with us!”

Velvet stood up. “You done?”

“Excuse me?” Pyrrha asked.

“Are you done with the whole misplaced guilt slash weird propaganda PSA script read? It could use another draft.”

Jaune looked confused, and Nora was caught off guard, neither expecting Velvet to speak up like that after knowing her to be so quiet at school. Weiss took a sip of coffee, morbidly curious what would happen next.

Pyrrha stepped forward. “A Hunter who will not fight for their Kingdom and its people is nothing more than a mercenary.”

Velvet rolled her eyes. “You ever met a Hunter?”

“Don’t mock traditions that go back generations--”

Coco yawned. Everyone turned at the girl in sunglasses leaning back in her chair, unimpressed by the beginning of the impassioned speech.

Weiss couldn't help but smirk at Pyrrha’s confused face.

“What’s your guy’s problem?” Nora said. “Don’t you want to fight back?”

Velvet’s eyes widened at that last sentence. Whatever she was about to say, she swallowed it and composed herself before picking up her coffee and walking out of the room.

Coco sighed. "You guys are idiots, aren't you?" She leaned forward, her chair clacked on all fours and she pushed against the table to stand up.

“We just want to help, Coco,” Jaune said.

“Have fun. My team specializes in what we were trained for: Killing Grimm. Call us when you find some. Until then…” She turned to leave the room and looked over her shoulder at Weiss. “You coming?”

Weiss blinked in surprise.

Pyrrha turned to Weiss. “Weiss, tell her that it’s our responsibility--”

“Good luck with that,” Weiss said and followed Coco out of the room.

Weiss was sick of this garbage. Sick of Vale and its problems. Sick of Hunters and anyone who had anything to do with Ruby.

Coco and Weiss met back up with Velvet on the way back to their dorm room. Velvet sighed. “Sorry, Coco. I shouldn’t have blown up like that.”

“Eh, they deserved it. We didn’t act like that when we were freshmen did we?”

“Nope.” Velvet said.

“Thank god. No offense, Weiss.”

“None taken,” Weiss said. She took a sip from her coffee. It’s not like she counted as a Beacon student anymore anyways.

They approached CFVY’s room. Weiss sighed and lowered her head. If she was going to get a minute in private with Velvet, it was now or never.

“Hey, Velvet?” Weiss asked. “Can I talk to you alone for a minute? Sorry, Coco.”

Coco smirked. “No problem. You two have fun.” she winked at Velvet and went inside her dorm room.

Velvet blushed. “Yeah, let’s go.”

_ Was that an inside joke? _ Weiss thought. She didn’t get it, but whatever. It wasn’t her business.

A minute later, Weiss and Velvet were alone on the temp dorm’s roof. Weiss was drinking the last of her coffee to keep out the cold while Velvet fiddled with her camera while they both looked out over the city, Beacon Tower rising above them to the west.

“If I have to hear one more thing about Beacon I’ll go insane,” Velvet said.

Weiss didn’t know what to say. It didn’t feel like she should say anything. Eventually, she could only muster up, “Sorry about them.”

“It’s not your fault. It’s just everything else going on, you know? People keep asking me about Beacon like I’m an expert on the White Fang or something. And that’s the least of my worries. I’m scared to leave the dorm without Coco, Fox or Yatsu.”

“That… sucks.”  _ Sucks? Oh how far I’ve fallen. _

Velvet chuckled. “I knew what I was getting into when I started training. I want to kill Grimm, and the Academies is the best way to get legitimate jobs. It comes with  _ so _ much baggage, but I was going to work through it, despite it, and right as I’m halfway through,  _ this _ happens.”

The feeling of everything you’ve planned for getting ripped out of your grasp. Yeah, Weiss could sympathize with that. “There’s other Academies, and you think Ozpin isn’t going to set up somewhere else?”

“Oh no. Don’t get me wrong. I’m getting that license.” Velvet said.

“That’s the spirit!” Weiss said. Trying her best to sound supportive.

Velvet popped the lens cap off her camera and clicked it back on. “Maybe I’m just jealous.”

“Of Pyrrha?”

“Of the White Fang. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to force Humans to treat me better or take me seriously. At the very least to not ignore what I can do.” She looked up at the tower. “Now everyone’s paying attention. For better or worse.”

Weiss nodded. Everyone’s lives had been uniquely thrown into the dumpster with Beacon.

Velvet sighed and fidgeted with the lens cap again while looking up at the school. “I don’t even want to think about it.”

Weiss looked up with her. “How about we just go to the other side of the roof then?”

Velvet laughed. “That’ll fix everything, wouldn’t it?” She held up her camera and snapped a photo of Beacon Tower. 

Weiss raised an eyebrow, and Velvet turned and snapped a photo of Weiss. 

“Something bad and something good,” Velvet smiled.

Weiss shrugged. Why question Velvet anymore?

“How about you?” Velvet asked. “What did you want to get off your chest.”

“Yang is… she’s healing up fast--I swear that family is indestructible--but it’s like she doesn't care about anything all of a sudden. I thought she’d be trying her hardest to escape and find Ruby, but she’s just sitting there in the hospital. She’s not responding to my messages, and she didn't even want to see me when I tried to visit her earlier!”

_ You’re too heated,  _ Weiss told herself.  _ Calm down. You have to be the collected one. _

“Are you okay?” Velvet asked.

“Yes,” Weiss said. She didn’t need sympathy, and she couldn’t show weakness.

Putting that into a thought made her realize that part of her head was her father talking.

_ Damn it!  _ Weiss clenched her fist. 

“I’m fine, Velvet. Really.”

Velvet didn’t say anything. She only waited for Weiss to say it herself.

“It’s stupid,” Weiss said lowering her head.

“It’s all good. What’s up?”

“...You and Winter are all I have left.”

It all shattered as the tears rolled down her cheeks. For a moment she believed she’d found a home. After all those years, she couldn't believe something that impossible happened, or that she let herself believe it would stick. Apparently, she had, and now her home was gone, and everyone in it had abandoned her. They were supposed to be a team, so why was she so alone? What had gone so wrong that it only lasted for such a short time?

Velvet moved in close and hugged Weiss, her arms giving Weiss an anchor to cling onto. “Hey,” Velvet said. “I’ve got you. Okay?”

Weiss nodded. She buried her face against Velvet’s shoulder. “Thanks, Vel.”

 

* * *

 

Blake pulled the next box from the back of the shelf toward her and looked at the barcode. After lining up her scanning gun's laser to update the inventory, she grabbed the box and put it in its new spot above her. She managed to squeeze it in, but she still had half a dozen boxes to go, and would probably have to reorganize the rest of the middle shelf before fitting in anymore. Blake crouched down to find the next box to scan it into the new system.

“Hey, can we get some help over here!”

Looking around the corner of the shelves, some other Faunus were working in the Beacon stockroom and were rearranging some shelves in the back to make room for some machinery and needed another pair of hands.

“Sure thing,” Blake shouted back. She quickly walked over and held the metal shelf for them as they slid the equipment into its new place. There was an organizational system here before the White Fang took over, but Blake and the rest of the crew she had been assigned to had been tasked with rearranging it and improving it for the changes they were making to the campus. The other Faunus took the shelf back and thanked her before Blake went back to her boxes.

The problem with immersing herself in work was that Blake was good at it and finished up faster than she wanted. After she finished her previous shift, she offered to take another Faunus’s to keep herself busy. Now that everything was wrapping up in the stockroom, she was going to have to find something else to occupy herself with.

A call went out over the radio: “Could one of you guys in the warehouse bring an extra box of towels to the kitchens?”

Before anyone else could react, Blake pulled her radio from her belt. “Be right there,” she said. She walked to a nearby shelf, grabbed the box they needed and walked out for the warehouse towards the cafeteria building.

In less than two days, Beacon campus had been transformed. Using equipment from the Atlas fleet, construction crews were hard at work around the clock repairing and reinforcing the campus into a military base. It was the first time the White Fang had achieved a victory on this scale, and they weren’t going to spare any expense defending it.

Blake walked past an Atlas attack shuttle landed just off the walkway for maintenance. A group of off-duty Faunus soldiers were spray painting it black, and stenciling a red White Fang insignia on the side. She’d seen one of two of the repainted ships flying around the perimeter since this morning and as she walked past she overheard them talking about plans for a massive job to paint the larger ships, even the flagship to match the White Fang’s colors. It would take a long time, but from their excitement, it seemed worth the work. Blake imagined it: An entire fleet of ships flying the colors of the White Fang. Even over a day later, she could barely believe it.

The outside of the cafeteria--or what was left of the cafeteria--was swarming with construction crews and scaffolding, only now just beginning to make repairs. The building took the heaviest hit during the Battle of Beacon, as everyone was calling it now, and for now, a group of nearby tents was being used as a temporary mess hall until the building was repaired. Luckily, the kitchens were still functional. Blake walked through the plastic tarp covering the back entrance and into the kitchen. She spotted the head chef, a Faunus woman with tusks named Azul, talking to Lieutenant Basil.

“I swear these humans have never heard of piri piri,” Azul said, disgusted by how restricted she was by the ingredients Beacon had in stock.

“I think that’s more of a Vale thing,” Basil said. “The newer recruits from around here are making me want to pull out that spicy chicken recipe I’ve been saving.”

“Well, I have nuggets if you want ‘em.”

Blake peaked around the corner with the box. “Where do you want this ma’am?”

“Just on the counter here is fine, honey,” she said.

Blake nodded, set the box down and started to walk out of the building. “Hey, Blake! Wait up.” Basil called out to her. He ran up to her and lifted the plastic tarp for her before they walked outside. “I heard you’ve been a busy bee.”

“I have plenty of time to make up for,” Blake said.

“Well, from what I’ve heard, you made up for a year’s absence overnight.”

“Shit,” Blake grumbled. She stopped and faced Basil. “What did you hear?”

“It’s come to my attention that you’ve been working on that warehouse since last night. And you haven’t had a single break.”

“Nothing I haven’t done before.”

“We’re not in a small squad of a dozen people anymore, Blake. We can afford to sleep now.”

“I’m fine…”

“Have you looked in a mirror, kid.” He raised an eyebrow. “Pretty soon you’re going to collapse, and I can’t use you if you can’t stand.”

It took her a minute, but Blake realized that this wasn’t a suggestion from a friend. This was an order from her commander. “Yes, sir.”

“Go to your quarters and sleep. You’ve earned it.”

“I still have a bunch of--”

“I’ll send someone to cover it. Go. Get. Some. Sleep.” He put a hand on her shoulder and smiled.

“Yes, sir,” Blake said. She turned and started heading to the dorms in the other direction.

“Hey, Blake!” Basil called out to her. She turned around. “Don’t let me catch you sneaking off to that big library we have now instead of sleeping.”

Blake laughed. “And  _ you _ don’t stay in the kitchen too long, or you’ll end up cooking for the entire base!”

“Don’t tempt me, kid,” Basil called back with a laugh and turned back towards the mess hall.

Blake’s smile faded as Basil walked away.  _ Go to your quarters and sleep, huh? _ Like she hadn’t tried that yesterday. The only thing she could do was bury herself in work. Any work. She didn’t care. Blake rubbed her face. It felt like it dropped a couple inches last night.  _ I need some coffee or something _ , she thought. That being said, her exhaustion was getting worse than any caffeine could keep up with and she knew it. Blake hadn’t slept since before the attack, and she barely slept that night either. Insomnia was no stranger, but she had an irritating itch to do something which made lying in bed impossible.

Lost in thought, Blake wandered around the edge of campus until she looped back up to the old dance hall under the CCTS tower. She sat down next to the fountain in the courtyard behind the building to rest for a second away from prying eyes.

Blake’s mind slipped back to the other night. She remembered the noise of the battle outside and the rage in Ruby’s eyes.

Her determination that Blake loved so much had been warped into hatred, and it was Blake who had done that to her. Ruby had been destroyed before the fight even began, and Blake wasn't sure how she would make it back after that.

_ All I do is break things, _ Blake thought. Even Ruby and all her strength wasn’t immune.

With almost perfect timing, Blake heard some footsteps to her side and looked up to see Ilia walking up to her. “Lieutenant Basil told me that you were supposed to go get some sleep,” she said.

“I just needed some time alone,” Blake said.

Ilia frowned, obviously annoyed by Blake’s response. _ Was she looking for me at the dorm? _ Blake wondered as Ilia sat down next to her on the edge of the fountain and sighed.

After a moment of quiet, Blake spoke up. “Ilia, I-- I owe you an apology.”

Ilia didn’t turn towards Blake.

“After that mission with Adam on the train, I don’t know. I just…”

“I thought you were never coming back,” Ilia interrupted. “That morning, I… a bunch of us went out to look for you and for a second I thought you were dead or something. We didn’t even consider desertion at first. After all, we all though if anything ever happened to Adam you’d be the one who’d take over.”

Blake turned in surprise.“I never thought that!”

“You were the only one.” Ilia laughed sadly. “We couldn’t understand how Blake of all people could just run off. But you did.” Ilia lowered her head. “But you did.”

Blake wanted to reach for Ilia's hand. But, she gave up that right a long time ago.

The first time they sat like this and opened up to each other was on that beautiful autumn night. They'd snuck off to the roof of a nearby ruin and just talked about their lives growing up. Blake told her about her childhood, never knowing her parents, the White Fang taking her in, and how Adam taught her everything she knew, and Ilia talked about how her parents had died in a mining explosion and her struggles after that.

Back then, Blake reached out and held her hand. Ilia looked deep into Blake’s amber eyes and leaned up to kiss her. Blake kissed her back and Ilia let Blake hold her the rest of the night. 

It was a moment that felt centuries ago now.

“I was in a bad place for a while,” Ilia continued her story, breaking Blake out of her nostalgia. “Even almost got Basil killed on a mission. Which just made me even angrier at you, so I started lashing out at everyone back at camp. Adam had to pull me aside one day and said I needed to get myself together or I was out of the squad. That simple. Eventually, I was able to distract myself into the missions and move on. Until you came back out of nowhere and all those feelings came back like a bursting dam or something. Both the good and bad ones.”

A quiet moment filled only by the faint chatter of Faunus working in the distance and ships hovering high above passed. Ilia finally spoke up, “Here’s how it is. I will keep the right to be pissed at you forever, but… you know I get it right? I know that’s arrogant of me, but if things were that bad, you could have… you could have talked to me. I know we had our fights, but I thought I was someone who you… We could have helped you, Blake.”

Blake wanted to pretend that it was the lack of sleep lowering her defenses; whether that was true or not, Blake’s eyes started to tear up. “I know,” she said, a sob sneaking out without permission “I’m sorry, Ilia. I’m so sorry.”

Ilia sighed. “God damn it,” she grumbled as she reached an arm around Blake and pulled her in for a side hug. “You know,” Ilia said. “Part of me just wishes we could go back to the old days. Simpler back then, huh?”

Blake smiled, successfully holding back the rest of her tears. She looked up at the sky. A giant ex-Atlas ship surrounded by several black and red White Fang fighters hovered above them.“I don’t think there’s a going back from this.”

“Yeah,” Ilia said.

“If it means anything, I never hated you guys. I thought I couldn’t go back. That I ruined what we all had and I… I can’t undo anything, and I know how childish this sounds, but…” Blake paused before committing to how she really felt. “Would it be possible to go back to being friends?”

“I--” Ilia stopped. “I’ll think about it.”

“Fair enough,” Blake said.

Ilia smiled. “Now get some rest.” She stood up and quickly walked out of the courtyard.

Blake leaned back and looked up at the overcast sky. Maybe. Just maybe, she’d been wrong. And everything she’d abandoned wasn’t lost forever.

For her own sake, she hoped it was true.

 

* * *

 

_ What the hell am I doing? _

Ruby stared at her traveling companions as they silently walked along a path through the forest. While she was doing fine, Roman and Neo were slowly dragging their feet, Roman almost losing his footing twice in the last couple minutes. They didn’t really have traveling attire, and their shoes weren’t really hiking material. Not at all the type of people she would willingly take for a hike or even a camp-out. Which brought her back to her original question:  _ What the hell am I doing?  _ How depressed had she been yesterday to actually agree to this?

Ruby sighed. Now that she had a day to think about this, this was the worst idea she’d ever had. Probably the worst idea ever.  _ Sure, I’ll just help some wanted criminals. Terrorists, no less. Let’s travel across the continent for god knows what reason because you’re SAD. Even if they can lead me to their boss, I’ll probably end up letting her go on a whim too. Stupid!!!  _ But she was still walking and leading them down the path, so what did she know?

It was late afternoon, and they had made their way out of the mountains hours ago on an old dirt path used by Hunters during the warmer seasons, which Ruby was grateful for because she didn't want to trek through god knows what, let alone get Roman and Neo wading through or climbing over anything worse than a log. The forest was still wet after a rainfall last night, drops of water clinging to the leaves around them. Ruby was just grateful that they scavenged some coats from the crash to keep out the weather if they needed them. Now that they were out of the mountains, in another hour or so they would start traveling downhill out of the forest, the only break in the tree-filled scenery being a ravine about fifty yards to their left.

A Scroll appeared in Ruby’s peripheral.  _ “Why so quiet, Red?”  _ Neo typed.  _ “You’re talking less than me.” _

Ruby raised an eyebrow and Neo chuckled silently.

“So when are we having dinner?” Roman said.

“We have a ways to go before we make camp,” Ruby said.

“Are you sure we can’t just stop for the night now?”

“No camp until after dark.”

“I’m just saying,” Roman said.

“I thought you hated the field rations. The only thing you’ve done for the last three--” Ruby counted “-- _ four _ meals, was complain about them.”

“Maybe you could go  _ Hunt _ something,” Roman said.

_ Maybe you could jump down that ravine over there.  _ There was probably a stream at the bottom so Roman could theoretically catch a fish. The image of him with his sleeves rolled up trying to grab one with his slippery hands made Ruby laugh.

“So how did you two of all people get mixed up with the White Fang?” Ruby asked.

Roman yawned. “We did some work with The Bandit in Mistral. Got into a little trouble with the powers that be over there and she helped us get out alive. So when she said ‘Hey, is it cool if we loan you two to Taurus and get the White Fang a bunch of Dust for a top secret massive operation all sneaky like, and while you’re there, could you bomb the city?’ we said: ‘Sure.’ ”

Neo shrugged and typed, _ “More or less.” _

“Really?” Ruby said. “It’s that easy to convince someone to cause a breach?”

“It’s a city crawling with Hunters and Atlas troopers. Vale was going to be fine. Also, it was for a good cause. So now we’re off to meet The Bandit to get our pay yadda yadda you know the rest.”

_ Even if it was small _ . “You weren't there,” Ruby said.

“And you were. Keeping the monsters under control. That was the point.”

Ruby rolled her eyes. It was pointless talking to these people.

“How bad could a Grimm even be?” Roman said. “Give me a Hunter-class weapon and I’m sure I could--”

An Ursa suddenly burst out of the trees and roared at the traveling party. It charged, Roman and Neo froze in place, too scared to even scream out.

A red blur appeared in front of them and sliced across the Grimm’s neck. The Grimm’s head rolled to the side and hit the path like a wet bag.

Ruby stood up and collapsed her weapon. She turned to Neo and Roman who were staring at her.

“Oh my god,” Roman said. “Is... she cool?”

Neo signed something back.

“I think she might be cool!”

“Anything else to say about Grimm?” Ruby frowned.

Roman and Neo shook their heads.

“Okay,” Ruby said. “We need to go because Grimm rarely travel alone so another one might pop up any--”

In a burst of earth and shredded bark and wood, a giant King Taijitu erupted out of the ground near the path and charged at the three of them. Even Ruby screamed when this one showed up. 

One of the snake’s heads slammed down on their group. Ruby activated her Semblance Faster than either of her companions could blink, she snatched Roman and Neo out from under the maw of the Grimm, each one under each of her arms, and zoomed off in a random direction.

_ That was way too close! _ Ruby thought. She managed to look back. The Grimm impacted the path, sending a shower of dirt chunks through the air.

Ruby looked forward to where she’d propelled herself: right towards the edge of the ravine.

Ruby dug her heels into the slick dirt, but before she could correct their flight-path, all three of them flew right over the ledge. Roman's hat blew off his head as soon as they were airborne. Neo and Roman clung onto Ruby's arms and screamed.

Tightening her grip on both of them--Neo, the smallest of the group, luckily being under Ruby’s left arm--Ruby unfolded Crescent Rose into its rifle mode. It took Ruby a second to be sure she had a solid grip around Roman's stomach, but once she was confident, she blasted Crescent Rose and her Semblance again, this time towards the sheer rock face of the other side of the ravine. She transformed her weapon out into a scythe and stabbed the blade into the wall, swinging them down into the side of the cliff, smacking all three of them against the rock.

For a moment, they looked between each other, double checking that they were alive. Roman stare followed his hat as it fluttered down into the ravine beneath them. He gulped and tightened his grip on Ruby.

A shower of gravel hit Ruby in the head. She looked up to see it coming from where her weapon was impaled into the cliff.

“Oh boy.” Ruby groaned.

Their collective weight pulled the blade down the rock wall, slicing as they dragged it down along the cliff wall. Roman started screaming again as chunks of rocks and dirt were ripped out of the wall as they fell down the rest of the ravine. Just before they reached the bottom, the blade dislodged from the wall, and all three of them fell a couple yards backward in a heap into a muddy puddle.

Ruby breathed heavily and shut off her Aura. The other two were in more of a stunned silence, reeling from how they somehow survived all that.

The Grimm roared in the distance, but Ruby could hear its massive body moving in the opposite direction, so she knew that, for now, they were safe.

Ruby sighed and let her head fall back against the wet mud. 

“How about camp?” Ruby asked.

Neo started to giggle. Ruby looked down at the multicolored woman laying on her arm and snickered along with her. Roman chuckled with the other two and pointed to the side. 

“Oh look! My hat missed the puddle.” 

They all laughed.

  
  


A couple of hours later, they were laughing around a campfire. They’d found a dry spot just up the stream at the bottom of the ravine and set up camp. Ruby had set up wire traps to alert them of any Grimm around the perimeter, so, for now, they could all relax. Their clothes were cleaned and set out to dry while they sat around the campfire in sweats and undershirts.

Roman laughed at something Neo typed. “And then she just blasts us off a cliff!” he said.

Neo typed,  _ “You cried like a baby on the way down.” _

“I know!” 

They laughed.

Ruby looked at the two of them and shoveled her dinner in her face. Thank god Atlas knew where to get the good instant meals.

Neo and Roman… if she hadn’t met them through a series of Dust crimes, she might have noticed sooner how they treated each other. They teased each other in a way that felt a lot like how she and Yang did. It was comforting somehow to see something like that even all the way out here in the middle of nowhere.

“You two froze up at an Ursa like a couple of rookies,” Ruby said.

Neo typed, “All I could think was, ‘Wow, Grimm are bigger than I thought,’ lol.”

“I can’t believe I jinxed us like that,” Roman said laughing.

“Back on Patch, we have a saying: If you're going to talk shit about Grimm, be ready for them to knock on your freaking door.”

All three laughed.

“When we get back to civilization,” Roman said, “I owe you a meal. It’s on me. And I promise I won’t take it out of your pay. What will you have?”

“Track down a Vacuo restaurant and we’ll talk,” Ruby said.

He smiled and turned to Neo. “She likes Vacuo food! I knew hiring her was a good idea!”

Neo spat out her drink and punched his shoulder. Ruby laughed with them and another log popped in the campfire.

 

* * *

Weiss forgot to close the curtains before it got dark outside, so her reflection in the glass of her rigidly sitting on the couch watching TV in her and Winter’s apartment stared back at her.

“With the news of the White Fang’s insurgency in Vale territory, Faunus around Remnant have become emboldened. Some violent groups have incited multiple riots through Atlas.” The news showed footage of fires and Atlas troops marching against a crowd of Faunus throwing anything they could at the police. A molotov cocktail shattering against a riot shield before the footage cut back to the Vale news station. “Massive protests have also formed in Mistral, as the Kingdom’s leadership shut down their offices for emergency meetings for reasons currently unknown to the public.”

The world had become chaotic right before her eyes, and the White Fang taking over a CCTS tower had been the match to the bonfire.

The footage cut to the walls outside of Beacon Academy. A Faunus walked along the wall. Weiss sat closer to the screen to see if she recognized her. Of course not. She sighed and turned off the TV. Her reflection leaned her head back and looked towards Weiss from the dark motionless city outside.

“Sorry I’m late!” Winter opened the front door holding two bags of takeout. She kicked the door closed behind her and dropped the bags on the table.

Once they started eating, Winter had asked how Weiss’s day was. “I visited Yang and Vel,” Weiss said picking at her food with her chopsticks. “The other Beacon students are getting restless. They feel like they should be helping.”

“Ironwood has suggested taking along trainees for additional support once we start the raids,” Winter said. “I told him it would be a bad move, but right now he’s more interested in quantity over quality. They may get recruited yet.” She took another bite and thought for a while. She looked at Weiss. “What’s wrong?”

Weiss dropped her chopsticks in her unfinished plate. “It’s just… Ruby’s gone. Blake’s missing, probably at Beacon right now, honestly. Yang doesn’t want to talk to me anymore, and…” She sighed. “After Ruby rescued me from the mansion she became an inspiration to me. I wasn’t the heir anymore, but instead of feeling lost, I felt like if I followed her that becoming a Hunter wouldn’t be a waste. I’m  _ so _ mad at her, but ever since she disappeared, everything’s felt off. I… I just want her to come back.”

Winter reached across the table and grabbed Weiss’s hand. “Ozpin is doing everything in his power to find her.”

“I know,” Weiss said.

Winter nodded and went back to eating her food. “Now that we’ve regained a stronger access to the Kingdom’s security systems, tracking her down shouldn’t--”

The door burst open. Wood from the frame split as the henges exploded out of the wall. A dozen Atlas soldiers rushed into the room, crouched and covering every corner with their weapons.

“Get on the ground!” the leader of the team yelled as he pointed his weapon at Weiss and Winter mid standing up from surprise. “Get on the ground!”

Both sisters dropped. Weiss followed Winter’s lead and held her arms up near her head. One soldier got on top of Winter, kneeled on her back and grabbed both of her arms, handcuffing them behind her back with a metal slab that even Aura would struggle breaking. Weiss felt two gloved hands grab her wrists and restrain them as well.

Weiss tried to lift her head, but one of the soldiers shoved her face into the carpet. She grunted and tried to look up at the figures above her. The Dust rifles were pointed at their foreheads, and Weiss had a sinking suspicion that their safeties weren’t on.

She looked over at Winter, looking for a hint of what was going on in all the chaos, not expecting anything but the same confusion and betrayal that Weiss was feeling, but Winter’s face didn’t read as surprised. She looked worried. Not for herself, but for Weiss. She looked back at Weiss with a tinge of regret. Like she’d known that this would always happen, just sad that it had to happen now of all times.

A heavy footstep that Weiss recognized entered the apartment.

“We have her contained, sir,” the head of the team said.

The voice of General Ironwood responded, “Search everything!” he ordered. His boots walked over to Weiss and Winter pressed against the ground. Winter lifted her head and locked eyes with her commander. After a moment the general said with a sneer, “Take them back to base.”

An Atlas soldier roughly pulled Winter to her feet. Her face was emotionless as she kept eye-contact with Weiss as they were dragged out of the apartment.


	22. The Last Straw

A dozen screens covered the wall, scanning through footage from every security camera and Scroll in Vale from the past few days. Amber stood in front of the monitors, basked in the screen’s blue light in the dark room. The feeds were harder to access now that they didn’t have direct control of the CCTS Tower, but Vale’s security network remained online through all the chaos, and Ozpin’s council codes were, for now, still active.

Facial recognition software was scanning through every frame of footage. It had taken days to set up the program, and now it was running its course even faster than intended. After the attack on Beacon, Ruby Rose hadn’t shown up anywhere. She was completely off Vale’s grid. Amber knew that Ozpin didn’t want to acknowledge the most probable answer: That Ruby was killed during the battle and the White Fang were covering it up because the death of a child during their revolution would be a PR disaster. Even for them.

Ozpin was too compromised to be overseeing the search for the girl.

Amber hated getting roped into this, but Ozpin wanted eyes on this at all times, and it wasn’t like she had anything better to do. All she wanted was to quietly and miserably train students on how to properly use their Auras before they went out into the meat grinder, but The White Fang had to pick her school and Glynda had to get injured so now she was stuck with futilely tracking down the brat.

Every time she saw Ruby Rose, all she saw was a child with everything in the world before her, wasting her life to become a Hunter. And she hated it. She was like a sick mirror. The last time Amber saw her, Rose spoke like being a Hunter meant something. Like it was something honorable. Like the kid knew anything about being a Hunter...

  
  


A young girl hit the ground. She rolled to her side and winced in pain. Amber was eight years old and doing her best to keep her Aura activated. A stick hit her across the back, sending a deep cut across her Aura.

“Your Aura,” a man standing above her said. “Use it!”

He struck her across the back again. Amber’s Aura shattered, and she wailed in pain.

“USE IT!”

Amber pulled herself up on all fours. She gritted her teeth and tried to manifest what she could out of the shards of her Aura. Crackled energy appeared for only a second around her body before she coughed up blood from the effort.

“Lazy brat.” 

Her instructor grabbed her and pulled her up, his Aura still intact. He lifted her off the ground with her legs dangling in the air.

“Never,” he ordered. “Never let your Aura break. If your Aura breaks, you’re dead.”

With his other arm, he punched Amber in the gut and dropped her to sprawl in the dirt. 

Amber shook trying to hold back the tears. She couldn’t look weak. Hunter’s weren’t weak. He walked away from her to talk to the other adults who were standing around watching her training match. 

She looked up at them in disgust.

Late into that night, she trained her body and mind. Late into every night, she practiced Aura strengthening techniques, over and over again. Every time she allowed herself to believe for a moment that her progress entitled her to ease her training, she started over from scratch. Every milestone and goal met was just a transition to the next one, all leading to her fighting her instructor again.

A year later, Amber fought him. Her Aura never broke, and they both walked away from the sparring match intact.

Amber’s Aura would never break again. She swore it.

She was more than ready to enter an Academy of her choosing at fourteen, but the Haven headmaster made her wait another year. However, this was no setback. It was just another year of training. By fifteen, Amber’s control over her Semblance was masterful. As she entered the Academy, Amber soon realized that when it came to Aura techniques, she knew more than the professors. Not that she let them know that. Quietly doing her work, Amber excelled in her training. Every once and awhile, another student asked her for tutoring, but she dismissed them. Amber came to Haven to train, not teach.

The other students weren’t the only annoyance. The entire tournament culture disgusted her, and despite the pleas of her headmaster, avoided it almost as much as she avoided the other students. She graduated in a mere two years, faster than any other Hunter before her, and younger than when most even started going to an Academy.

Immediately put into the field, Amber often completed missions without ever using her weapon. Grimm fell to her Semblance before they could get close enough to become a threat. She casually went from mission to mission, not even a drop of Grimm blood hitting her with how efficient and brutal she was. In just over a year, she was already trusted with more sensitive missions against the Kingdom’s enemies. Surprisingly, the transition from killing Grimm to other humans was easier than she expected.

After little over a year of the start of what would be a legendary run as a Hunter, she was assigned a simple assignment. An ex-Hunter had gone rogue a while back and was now helping the White Fang in the settlements. The mission: cut and dry execution. Nothing she hadn’t done before.

After a week of tracking the target, Amber came across her on a country dirt road under an overcast sky. The masked woman wore blood-red battle gear and a Grimm skull mask. She drew her long crimson Dust blade at the sight of Amber. Her sheath was a mechanized rotary chamber of different Dust blades for varied attacks and abilities. Definitely something a Hunter would whip up.

She already had a codename among the White Fang: The Bandit. Named for her guerrilla tactics and how efficiently she stole Dust and munitions for the White Fang’s terrorist actions. Everything about her reputation and appearance was designed to intimidate. 

Amber's approach was more efficient. She wore traveling combat gear that wasn't flashy and her weapon was a staff. Simple. Just how Amber liked it. Unlike her opponent, Amber didn't need theatrics to do her damn job.

Amber started the fight by sending out a wall of fire. The wooden fence posts along the road burst into embers as the blast of flame covered The Bandit.

A moment before Amber’s attack reached her, The Bandit leapt over the fence to the side and started running through the tall grass up the side of the road towards Amber.

Amber sliced her hand across the air, sending a horizontal slice of fire, but The Bandit slid underneath and rolled out of the way of a follow-up attack.

_ Right where I want her, _ Amber thought. She punched forward, sending a fireball at the Bandit. The Bandit didn’t have any time to recover and dodge the next attack. Another sure win for Amber.

The Bandit threw a grenade forward at the wave of fire heading her way. It exploded into a giant crystal of ice, taking the brunt of the attack shattering as it shielded the Bandit.

Using the opening, The Bandit rushed over the smoldering fence in close range of Amber and swung at her with her Dust blade. Amber drew her staff to block the sword, clashing in the middle of the road.

The Bandit was strong, too strong for someone who was supposed to be only proficient at hit and run tactics.

_ The reports didn’t mention this, _ Amber thought.  _ Typical. _

Amber blocked a series of precise strikes. Every swing was an efficient killing blow meant to end the fight. Amber could barely keep up while fighting defensively.

Swiping up, The Bandit chipped off the edge of Amber’s Aura by her head. 

Amber pulled back and threw another firebolt at The Bandit. The Bandit dodged to the side and Amber threw another one. The Bandit plugged her blade into her sheath, pulling out a different, now white katana that radiated a cold mist. Her next swing negated the fireball into a burst of steam.

Another one of The Bandit’s attacks with the ice blade grazed her Aura, making her take more damage than she needed. Amber knew she’d been careless, but she couldn’t afford to use her expensive area of effect heat technique that kept enemies at a distance without a plan to end this fast.

Amber moved to block another attack swinging down from above, but the ice blade sprang off the hilt and faster than Amber could keep up with her, the Bandit had crouched and replaced the blade with her old one. The Dust shattered into a dozen conjured ice shards and pierced Amber’s Aura. The Bandit sliced horizontally across Amber’s stomach.

A quick step back was the only thing that made The Bandit’s strike only damage her Aura rather than cut right through her. Amber send another Aura blast at the Bandit to create some room and get a hit in. The Bandit took the brunt of the fireball and slid a yard back through the dirt.

Amber snapped one of the ice shards out of her Aura. Her Aura was showing cracks. That last bunch of attack had taken a lot out of her. She gasped for breath and glared at The Bandit’s emotionless mask.

Gripping her staff, Amber ran and leapt at The Bandit. The Bandit readied her blade to block the next strike from above.

_ Got her. _

A burst of fire erupted from her leg, spinning her backwards and using the last of her power, sent an explosive kick into the Bandit’s side, sending her sprawling onto the dirt road.

Amber hit the ground with a heavy thud. Her attack had weakened her Aura to the verge of breaking, but she was still standing. The Bandit would be down for only a minute, so Amber had to move fast.

Amber pulled herself up with her staff, using it as a support as she hobbled over to the Bandit and stood over her. With a twist of her hand, a blade popped out of the bottom end.

The Bandit’s mask moved up to look at Amber lifting her spear to stab down at her downed opponent. 

Amber gritted her teeth and stared wide-eyed at the Bandit. Cut and dry execution,  nothing she hadn't done before, but everyone she’d fought before never got her this close to breaking. 

So Amber decided she was going to enjoy this.

With a flick of The Bandit’s wrist, a shape flew into the air at Amber’s eye level. Amber glanced up. The grenade’s lever spun away as it reached the apex of the toss and hovered in the air.

The Bandit sliced her sword across the ground at her side, tearing open a red void which she quickly rolled through and vanished as the portal sealed behind her.

Amber moved her arms to shield her face...

But was too late.

The Dust grenade exploded into a hot white light, and Amber’s Aura shattered on impact.

It was a miracle she’d survived. A miracle someone found her when they did. It took over a month of constant medical attention and Aura healing before she could properly move again. Even with the burns that covered her entire body mostly healed, a permanent scar webbed across her face.

Amber couldn’t do missions after the injury. Even though her Aura had completely recovered and was better than ever, everything hurt. The doctors said that all the damage was healed. It shouldn’t have been painful anymore. If that was true: then why was she kept up every night, pain coursed through her like she was on fire all over again. When she tried to use her Semblance, she swore she could feel the heat from her own flame, which was impossible, but whenever she activated it, she could only collapse in pain. She couldn’t even kill Grimm like this.

Resigning herself, Amber cooped herself in her hospital room. She just wanted to be left alone in there, staring up at her ceiling or out her window day by day and isolated from the world that had granted her this “miracle.”

Amber had trained since she was barely old enough to remember to become a Hunter, and she was already out. When other students her age were just now getting into the field, Amber was already useless. She couldn’t even die properly like a Hunter should. The last fifteen years seemed like a pointless enterprise.

She wasn’t sure how many weeks she laid there in that state, but one day a man came knocking at her hospital room’s door.

“Excuse me.” He had grey hair and a cane that supported him as he walked. “My name is Ozpin.”

“We’ve met,” Amber said, not looking away from the window and a child playing with her ball outside.

“Yes, I know,” Ozpin said. He slowly made his way to her bedside and sat down in a chair. “I’m here to offer you a job. Beacon Academy has an opening for an Aura and Semblance specialist, and your reputation makes you a great option for us.”

_ So it turns out I wasn’t the only person who knew I was better than the Academy’s professors _ , Amber thought.

“I empathize with your situation, and while I can’t promise anything, I personally found that teaching helped me get past… this.”

Amber looked down at his leg.

Ozpin handed her a card and stood up. “I’ll be in touch.”

That night, Amber woke up clawing at her face. She gripped the edge of her hospital bed and gasped for air. Her face burned as the scar throbbed. She grabbed her sheet, rolled it up into a bit and clenched her teeth on it to stop herself from screaming and summoning the hospital staff again. 

Grunting in pain until it passed and her brain caught on that she was awake and nothing was happening. She spat out the sheet and sat up. She pulled back her hair and looked at the dark room around her, alone with her thoughts.

_ Fifteen years for nothing. _

Amber grabbed her scroll and dialed the number from Ozpin’s card.

“Hello?” Ozpin said on the other end. He didn't sound tired, like he also had been kept up all night.

“So I just teach some brats how to use their Auras, and that’s it?”

There was a pause. “That’s it.”

“I’ll be there in the morning.” Amber hung up and pulled herself out of bed. In only a couple minutes, she was dressed and walked out of the hospital alone.

  
  


Amber caught something on one of the hospital security cameras out of the corner of her eye and snapped back to the present. Xiao Long was sneaking out of her room. Using the cameras, Amber followed her through the building. She was wearing a jacket and cargo pants while holding a duffle bag over her shoulder. Xiao Long made her way to the garage where she hotwired a motorcycle and quickly rode out of the building’s camera range. 

_ Interesting _ , Amber thought. She quickly typed an algorithm into the Kingdom’s security network to follow the student through the city.

That girl had a lot of interesting people close to her. And whoever she was meeting, Amber wanted to know who. Just in case.

 

* * *

 

Weiss was handcuffed to a metal table. The interrogation room was windowless, but Weiss guessed from how tired she was that it was already late morning. A small camera in the corner of the ceiling watched her every move, and an Atlas soldier sat across from her while giving her the silent treatment. Weiss and Winter had been separated when they were dragged out of their apartment and taken to--what she presumed was--the Atlas/Vale temporary base at the hospital. Hours later and she still had no idea what was happening to them and was powerless to do anything about it.

The door opened, and Headmaster Ozpin and General Ironwood entered. 

“Get the handcuffs off her now!” Ozpin ordered the guard. 

The guard looked at the general, who nodded, so he unlocked Weiss. 

Ozpin turned to the general. “I will not have her treated like this.”

“She’s the suspect’s sister, and--”

“Don’t even try it, James.”

“Hey!” Weiss stood up and rubbed her wrists. “Excuse me, but what the  _ hell _ is going on? Where’s Winter?”

Ozpin sighed. “Show her,” he said to Ironwood.

Ironwood pulled a Scroll from his coat and played a video while holding it out to Weiss.

Weiss grabbed the Scroll and watched the tape. It was security footage; Winter was chained to a table just like the one Weiss had been all night. 

“We know that you were the one who leaked the source code to Queen,” An Atlas interrogator said.

Winter didn’t respond.

“We looked into all of our programs over the last couple of years that have been compromised by Queen, and incredibly, most of her leaks were from projects that you had some form of connection too or clearance to see.”

Winter’s face remained expressionless.

“The severity of the hacks also increased as you rose in rank. Now, I assume you can appreciate how bad this looks for you. Do you have anything to say for yourself?”

Winter kept looking forward past the interrogator as the video ended.

Weiss stared at the Scroll. “That’s impossible,” she said.

“We have further proof of her communicating with the White Fang,” Ozpin said. “And her silence speaks for itself. We have a chance to get some real information here. She might know more about what’s going on in Beacon and whatever she knows about Mistral the better.”

“What’s happening in Mistral?” Weiss asked.

“Are we just going to tell her everything, Oz?” Ironwood said.

“The same night Beacon was taken over, The White Fang secretly ambushed the core crime syndicates in Mistral,” Ozpin said. “It was a massive operation where they moved against a dozen strategic points and stole practically all their Dust and weapon supplies.”

“What?” Weiss said.

Ironwood sighed and continued the explanation, “The syndicates have turned on each other and are at each other’s throats, and the Mistral council is in a panic. Without stability, the council seat members don’t have the syndicates protection anymore, the’ve practically locked themselves inside the government building. The only reason it hasn’t gotten much attention on the network outside of Mistral is because Beacon appears to be a much bigger deal. It’s a perfect distraction.”

Weiss shook her head. “How much does the Mistral council… ‘rely’ on the syndicates?”

“Too much,” Ozpin said.

“More than the public needs to know,” Ironwood said. “The White Fang found their weakness and ripped them apart. Right under our noses they sieged one Kingdom and crippled another. And on top of it all, any day now, Taurus could put Khan on the TV again and announce that Mistral is virtually without a government right now with a massive gang war about to kick off. His propaganda is running unchallenged, and we’re just sitting here.”

_ Is it propaganda if it’s true?  _ Weiss thought.

“As devastating as it is to say, we don’t have enough information or leads to act on,” Ozpin said. “Which is why we want you to talk to Winter.”

“You want me to what?” Weiss said.

“Just see if you can reason with her,” Ozpin said.

“Don’t mense words, Oz,” Ironwood said. “We want you to interrogate her. Get any information out of her you can.”

“That’s ridiculous!” Weiss said.

“Just talk to her,” Ozpin said. "Try to figure out why she betrayed us, and maybe get some hints at whatever the White Fang is planning."

Despite her better judgment, Weiss stood in front of Winter’s interrogation room door a few minutes later. Ironwood would be watching through the camera in the other room, and Ozpin went back to his office for a progress report from Professor Amber.

The door opened, and Weiss walked inside.

Winter looked up and tsked when she saw who it was they’d sent.

Weiss sat in the chair across from Winter and tried to figure out what to say. “So… I hear you did some stuff,” she said.

Winter laughed. “Something like that.”

_ How the hell do I even begin interrogating my own sister? _ Weiss thought.

“Sorry,” Winter said. “For interrupting dinner, that is.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Weiss said. “Did they feed you? Give you water?”

“Eh,” Winter shrugged.

Weiss laughed sadly. “This was a bad idea. I have no idea what I’m doing here.”

“Well, they must be getting desperate if they sent you,” Winter said. “No offense.”

“I just don’t want them to hurt you.”

“Nothing’s going to stop that now.”

“I don’t get it,” Weiss said. “You’re the best Hunter working for the Atlas Military. You rose through the ranks faster than anyone. You… Your whole career, I don’t get why you’d do this?”

Winter looked down at her handcuffs. “Someday I would like to talk all about it. But no, Weiss, I can’t.”

Weiss clenched her fists under the table.

_ Of course not, _ she thought.  _ How could she in this situation. _

Was literally every person in her life pulling her around? Using her? Lying to her?

Is that all she was to the world?

_ I’m done with this game, _ Weiss thought.

Weiss stood up. Honestly, she should have done this from the start. Without another glance at her sister, Weiss left the room, ignoring Winter’s stare following her, and left the cell door open behind her as she marched down the hall.

A door in front of Weiss opened and Ironwood rushed out.

“Schnee!” he shouted. “What are you--”

“Do your own dirty work, bastard,” Weiss growled and pushed past him as he and two other guards quickly made sure Winter didn’t try to escape.

Weiss rode up the elevator and stormed onto the office floor. She ignored the glances of concerned Vale officials and marched right up to Ozpin’s office.

As she reached for the door handle, she heard a voice inside scream, “ _ Nothing! _ ”

There was a crash immediately after.

Weiss hesitated for a moment but pretended she didn't hear and barged into the office.

Amber was standing across from Ozpin at his desk, which he had just thrown the contents of across the room. His hands were still shaking from his outburst, and the only thing left was his desktop Scroll which showed a facial recognition surveillance report that stated that no match had been found for the target.

Ozpin tried to compose himself when he saw Weiss enter. “Miss Schnee,” he said. “How did it go?” He quickly nodded at Amber who excused herself with a bored expression and closed the door behind her.”

“What the hell are you doing?” Weiss narrowed her eyes.

“Well, Miss Schnee.” He turned the report towards Weiss. “I’ve been tirelessly looking for your team leader and have found nothing! Nothing! So if you have something to contribute, please let me know.”

He was on edge again. The calm headmaster had been replaced by a near panicking wreck.

Weiss didn’t care. 

“You’ve lost control of your school, you’ve lost control of Ironwood, and you’ve lost control of your students!”

Ozpin gripped his desk. “How dare you? After everything I’ve given you, protected you from, ALL for Miss Rose. And this is how you repay her? What do you think I’ve been doing this entire time! EVERYTHING I’ve done has been for her.

He leaned his weight on the desk. 

“Before I met her, I was just a young professor mindlessly teaching students.” Ozpin’s eyes were unfocused, almost like he didn't even remember Weiss was in the room. “A failure with no purpose. But then she came into my class. A girl with silver eyes. She showed me that I still had worth. That I could use my knowledge to help. That my mistake didn’t mean I was worthless.”

He snapped out of his trance and started at Weiss. Weiss took a step back from the wide-eyed man.

“Miss Rose is… I’m going to find her, Weiss.”

Weiss backed up to the door and without another word quickly opened it and walked as far away from the office as she could. 

This place was out of control. Everyone was losing their minds, or they’d always been crazy, and she was only now starting to notice it. 

In her hurry, Weiss bumped into a Vale security officer as she rushed down the hall. 

“Sorry,” she said as she passed them.

Weiss had to get to Yang. She was healed enough to get around now. They needed to get the hell out of here and--

Yang was gone. 

Weiss stood in the doorway looking in at the now empty hospital room. Yang, her clothes, her gauntlets, everything was gone. Weiss wanted to believe she just stepped out to get away from the hospital for a minute now that she’d recovered enough. Weiss wanted to believe that she would be back at any moment.

But after Ruby and Blake, Weiss knew better.

  
  


The next day, she heard nothing from Yang. Weiss gave up after the dozenth call to Yang’s Scroll last night. She sat alone in her and Winter’s apartment. The lights were off, and the drapes were shut, leaving her in the dark with only a thin line of daylight splitting the room in half.

Weiss was alone now. All her closest friends abandoned her. Her family was gone too. Just how it used to be. Weiss stared at a photo in her hands. Velvet had given her a copy of the picture she took of Weiss and Ruby at the dance: both in their dresses and smiling through the trepidation of the social event in front of them. She was holding it so tightly that the edge had started to bend.

A ring broke up the dark apartment as Weiss’s Scroll lit up. Weiss saw that the caller was Velvet, and answered.

Twenty minutes later, Weiss quickly walked along the platform of Vale’s train station. She spotted Team CFVY and went up to them. Coco laughed at a conversation between her other three teammates and then noticed Weiss heading their way.

“Hey, guys,” Weiss said.

“Wow,” Velvet said. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but are you okay?”

“I haven’t been sleeping well,” Weiss said. She’d told no one about her and Winter’s  arrest, or Yang’s disappearance. It was better that way.

Velvet and Weiss split off from the rest of her team and walked down the platform a ways. “Sorry, it was an abrupt decision, but this is the only train out of the Kingdom for a while,” Velvet said.

“Don’t worry about it. I get it,” Weiss said. “Get out of this crazy town while you can.” Team CFVY had talked about it all week, so it wasn’t a surprise to Weiss that they were leaving. It was just… sudden.

“So where will you guys go?” Weiss asked.

“Yatsuhashi’s place for a while.” Velvet said. “Maybe Vacuo after that. We’ll figure it out.”

Weiss nodded. The other Kingdoms felt so far away with Vale’s lockdown and the White Fang gaining power. Who knew how long until she would see Velvet again.

“You want to come?” Velvet asked.

Weiss looked up at Velvet.  _ Yes, I do _ , Weiss thought. Even as a fifth wheel it could be a lot of fun. She never really got to know Fox, but from the little she’d been around Yatsuhashi, he seemed like a fun guy. Just imagine, in a couple of months, she could go to Vacuo. A new school; a chance to start all over. Far away from Atlas, from Vale, from Beacon, the White Fang. Away from Yang, away from Blake, away from Ruby, away from Winter.  Weiss faced becoming an heir, and it was taken from her. She found a family, and that was taken from her. She reconnected with her sister, and that was taken from her. She’d finally found a life with people she loved, and that was taken from her.

“I’ll stay here,” Weiss said. Whether she liked it or not, there was something she needed to do.

Velvet nodded. “Good luck, Weiss.”

“You too,” Weiss and Velvet hugged before Velvet turned to walk back to her team. Weiss turned to leave the platform.

“Hey!” Velvet shouted back.

Weiss looked back at Velvet.

“Look. My family hates me!”

Weiss looked around. “Okay? Mood? As they say.”

Velvet walked back up to Weiss. “When I was growing up all they wanted for me was to be a proper Faunus. I had to act a certain way, or they thought other Faunus would think badly about our family or humans would think I was too subservient or something. I never really learned how to deal with it.”

_ Where is this going? _ Weiss thought. She could empathize with her, but it was being presented so quickly and now didn't seem like the time.

“My point is… I came to Beacon so I could train and use my powers to protect settlements, but part of it--and it's something I'm not proud of--was so I could piss them off. But along the way, I met my team. For the first time, I had a family who supported me and cared about me. I can’t explain how much that means to me.”

Weiss looked behind her at the rest of Velvet’s team talking to the conductor before they got on the train. Velvet still had what Weiss had lost.

“Family…” Velvet continued, “Family is the people who love you. No matter how far away they are.”

Weiss turned back to Velvet and looked down. “I’m glad you found one.”

“Heh,” Velvet chuckled as she put a hand on Weiss’s cheek. She lifted Weiss’s head before she leaned down and kissed her. After a moment, Velvet smiled and pulled away. “Me too.”

Weiss looked up wide-eyed and blushed. “Whoa.”

  
  


The train pulled out of the station, leaving Weiss standing alone on the platform. Velvet left with another hug and rejoined her team at the last second to hop on the train with them.

A mental image was stuck in her head for the last few minutes. The image of the smile on Velvet’s face before she lifted her camera and snapped a photo. Velvet was the one person who more than anyone had always been there to listen to her. The one person who she wanted to do the same for, but never did. The one person she could actually be herself around. 

That person was now on a train moving farther and farther out of sight.

_ And just like that, I’ve lost everything. _

Weiss sat down on a bench and put her head in her hands. “Stupid,” she grumbled to herself. “Stupid!”

She’d been right in front of her the whole time. And once again, she’d been too stupid to actually notice.

Weiss lifted her head and inhaled. 

For better or worse, the past six months had been the best time of her life. 

Weiss exhaled. 

And she refused to let it end this way.

She stood up and started walking back into the city. Every step forward filled her with determination.

_ Screw you, Yang! _

_ Screw you, Ruby! _

_ Screw you, Blake! _

_ How dare you do this to me. We were family, and sure, I wasn’t perfect, but at least I wasn’t the one that messed this all up. _

Weiss looked up at Beacon Tower in the distance.  _ I’m going to get them back,  _ Weiss thought. _ I’m going to get them ALL back! _

 

* * *

 

The thick metal gate slowly opened, revealing Roman and Neo facing forward with a bored expression while Ruby looked up curiously at the rough henges of the door slamming open. Together they started walking up the roughly paved street out of the wilderness and into the settlement for a mid-journey pit stop.

“Welcome to Burnsley!” Roman said. “One of the better settlements in this part of the world.”

The small city was surrounded by high concrete and metal walls. It was rough, but it would keep out any passing Grimm. The settlement was packed with concrete buildings tightly stacked together along narrow roads. They were a little run down after so much time. Burnsley was an older settlement, so it was a little run down after so much time, but after three days of hiking through the forest, it was practically utopia.

At the entrance of the settlement were the market and business area of town. The first thing that Ruby noticed about the crowds was how many Faunus there were. Probably over half the population had animal features of some kind. Now that Ruby thought about it, she’d never seen this many Faunus in one place. Patch was a human settlement and growing up the only Faunus she saw were the occasional traveler or merchant. She’d seen plenty more in Vale, but nothing compared to this.

“If I remember, there was a camping/survival shop around here somewhere,” Roman said.

“Considering what I’ve seen you two think camping is, hopefully they’ll have lunch bags,” Ruby said.

Neo silently chuckled.

“Shouldn’t you two be hiding your faces or something?” Ruby said.

_ “This settlement is sympathetic to the White Fang,” _ Neo typed.  _ “So even if someone recognizes us, it shouldn’t be an issue.” _

When they got to the shop, Ruby was impressed. It was cramped, easy to get lost in, especially for someone her height, but the gear and supplies were quality. None of the fancy garbage that stores in Vale were full of. It reminded her of what she could get on Patch. Just the good efficient stuff. The owner was a dog Faunus quietly sitting behind the counter waiting for them to finish perusing, and kept a close eye on the oddly dressed strangers.

The back of the shop was where he kept clothing for sale and where Roman and Neo found some hiking shoes. Ruby thanked whatever god was listening. Now they could walk five feet without complaining.

“Found the heaters!” Ruby called to the other two from one of the shop’s corners. She lifted three of the smaller ones until she found one light enough to travel in her backpack. “Finally, we won’t have to freeze at night.”

_ “What? You don’t want to cuddle in the tent anymore?” _ Neo typed as she and Roman walked up to her.

“I prefer the term: Huddle,” Ruby said. “And it was to keep out the cold.”

Roman smirked “Aw. Neo, she’s shy!”

Ruby looked back at the two of them grinning. “You two are creeps, you know that?”

The trio refilled on food and bought some better coats for the rest of the trip. Ruby went up to the counter to see if they had anything for Crescent Rose. “You sell ammo for sniper Hunter-class weapons?”

The owner looked her up and down and raised an eyebrow. “How  _ old _ are you?”

Ruby sighed and frowned.

“She’s the best Grimm killer you’ll ever meet,” Roman said stepping up to the counter next to Ruby, pushing his bowler hat up as he spoke. “Just show  _ me _ what you have if that’s what you’re worried about.”

The owner shrugged. “Whatever,” he said as he went into the back where he kept the weapon supplies.”

Ruby looked over at Roman. “Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.”

She bought more Dust ammo for her scythe and some basic and much needed tools for weapon maintenance and cleaning.

_ “Alright then,” _ Neo wrote.  _ “You need anything else?” _

Ruby took another look around the shop. “I think I’m good…” Her eye caught something nice. “You guys wait outside. I’ll only be a minute.”

_ “K”  _ Neo wrote as she and Roman left the shop.

A couple minutes later, Ruby came outside wearing a new outfit. Under her cloak was a white blouse with brown wristbands on the arms and a new overbust corset above her skirt.

_ “Looking good, Red,” _ Neo wrote.

Even Roman nodded. “Not a bad upgrade, kid.”

Ruby picked up her backpack and joined them as they started walking further into the crowded settlement.

“Do they have any places to eat?” Ruby asked. “Because I could use some real food before we head back out there.”

“I thought you liked the space junk?” Roman said.

“Any food gets old after having it day after day after day,” Ruby said. She didn’t have the heart to tell them that the new stuff they picked up from the shop wasn’t as good as the Atlas rations they’d been eating for the last few days. They might as well eat something nice before the descent in quality.

_ “If I remember right, there’s a Vacuo place on a side street somewhere around here,”  _ Neo typed.

“Well,” Ruby said, “I’ll take Roman up on his--”

The sound of an explosion further in the city shook the ground as a crack split the street under the trio’s feet.

Ruby stopped speaking as a whistling noise filled the air right before an object slammed into a nearby building. She glanced over a the sound of the impact just in time to see the windows light up in a white light as the walls of the building shattered out and exploded into the street in a wave of shattered concrete and hot ash on top of everyone in it.

Explosions were on the fast track to becoming a familiar feeling to Ruby, but mortars were new. Ruby coughed up the smoke and dust that was caught in her lungs. Her cloak had been shredded by the debris; holes now ran down the back of the cape section along with a tear across the side of the hood.  _ Damn it, _ she thought.  _ Should’ve listened to Dad and learned how to sew.  _ She looked out over the rubble around her. The cries and screams of people caught up in the blast started to rise up through the smoke.

“Shit!” Roman yelled.

Roman was bending down to help Neo who was writhing while trying to free her leg caught under a slab of concrete. Ruby rushed over and helped him lift the concrete and throw it to the side. Neo’s leg was messed up, so Roman picked her up by the arms, and dragged her behind some cover at the edge of the street. Ruby followed closely behind and looked over Neo’s injury. It was a compound fracture, her right tibia was broken through the skin on her leg; even with Aura healing, she wouldn’t be walking any time soon.

Neo looked at her mangled shin and grunted, annoyed and in pain.

Ruby looked up the street at the remaining husk of a building hit by the mortar. Her stomach hurt so she felt to see if any shrapnel hit her. No cuts. No bleeding. Why the hell did it hurt so much… 

_ Oh shit, _ she thought.  _ Not now. Not now. Damn it! _

A heavy footstep interrupted her panic. Ruby peaked around the slab of concrete they were using as cover and saw several figures walking through the smoke towards them. She was about to stand up and call out to them when Roman pulled her down and covered her mouth. He put a finger to his lips and motioned for her to look at who it was.

Ruby spotted the laser lines pointing through the smoke first. Then the troops stepped into view. Atlas troops, armed with Dust rifles.

Roman motioned Ruby towards Neo. Together, they each grabbed Neo and crouched and carried her into an alley off the street away from the soldiers. They set her down, and she grunted in pain. Roman shushed her, and Neo slapped the finger from his lips. Ruby pulled off her pack and dug through their gear for a rope and motioned for Neo to bite down on it. It would keep her quiet and help a little with the pain until they could get out of this.

Roman and Ruby leaned against the wall of the alley as the troops started to walk by.

“They pick today of all days to start attacking settlements?” Roman whispered as he checked that his scrapes and bruises weren’t too serious.

One of the soldiers fired their rifle down the street.

_ What? They’re shooting people? What the hell is going on?! _ Ruby leaned against the wall and stood up. She pulled out Crescent Rose and activated her Aura.

“Are you crazy?!” Roman whispered.

“We can’t just let them do this,” Ruby said as she took a step forward.

Roman stood up and pushed her back against the wall. “Look!”

A Hunter was standing in the middle of the squad of Atlas soldiers. She had a lance-type weapon that was transformed into a rifle form. She looked like she’d been experienced in the field for a while. Way tougher than anyone Ruby fought in sparring practice.

“You will fucking  _ die _ ,” Roman said. “You hear me?”

Ruby felt something sharp in her stomach. She could feel her knees giving out as she stared at the Hunter and the soldiers in front of her. The Hunter’s stare looked just like the secretary’s, all those months ago. The Hunter kicked a body on the ground; it stayed motionless.

“Let’s go,” Roman said as he started to pull himself and Neo in the opposite direction.

Ruby looked between the soldiers in the street and Neo. “Damn it,” she whispered. She grabbed Neo’s other arm and helped Roman carry her as they moved deeper between the buildings.

They came out of the other side of the alley into a different side street close to the settlement’s wall. Ruby tried to wave the dust out of her face and coughed. She passed the rest of Neo’s weight to Roman and grabbed at her stomach while trying to stop herself from throwing up.

“Freeze!”

A lone Atlas soldier was patrolling and caught them coming out of the alley. He had his rifle trained on Neo.

Faster than he could react, Ruby drew Crescent Rose and shot him in the leg before she even thought about it.

The Atlas soldier screamed and fell to the ground, dropping his weapon and clutched his bloody leg.

Ruby moved her scope up at the target’s head, put her finger over the trigger, and--

Ruby went wide-eyed.

This was a person. What the hell was she doing? The first way she was ever taught to hunt was to disable then execute. It came like second nature to her, but this wasn’t a Grimm. Why did she have to remind herself that?

Ruby lowered her weapon and looked down at it. Crescent Rose felt heavier than usual.

Roman pulled at her hood. “Let’s go!” he yelled.

Ruby tightened her pack while Roman carried Neo in his arms as they ran. She tried to shake off the sinking feeling in her chest, but she couldn’t drown out the man screaming in pain as gunfire riddled the settlement behind them.


	23. The Escape

The sun was halfway behind the mountains when Roman and Ruby finally stopped running. Ruby let her backpack fall against the ground and collapsed against the tree to catch her breath. Roman carefully set Neo on the ground, but her leg tapped a root and Neo clenched her jaw while forcing herself to hold still.

Ruby reached into her backpack and pulled out the first aid supplies before she climbed to her feet and walked over to Neo. Setting Crescent Rose against the same tree Neo was sat next to, Ruby upcapped the disinfectant bottle and wipes.

“Don’t activate your Aura until we’re done,” Ruby said.

Neo nodded and motioned at the painkillers. Roman handed her the bottle and Neo shook out a couple into her mouth and crunched them between her teeth.

Ruby cleaned and disinfected the wound, Roman holding Neo down and helping her through the pain. The break was cleaner than it had looked back in the chaos of the settlement attack, and Ruby was luckily able to set the bone and start dressing the wound before it started getting too dark.

As she was wrapping up the bandage, Roman started pacing in front of them while pulling his hair back. “Will she be alright?”

Neo waved him off and signed something.

“Shut up. No, you haven’t!” He turned to Ruby. “How is she?”

“How good is your Aura healing?” Ruby asked Neo while she started putting on the splint.

Neo moved her right hand from her chin outward into her left palm.

Ruby gave her a blank stare.

Neo stared back but then realized Ruby had no idea what she was saying, so she gave her a quick thumbs up.

Ruby finished putting on the splint. “Ok, you should be fine to activate your Aura now. If you’re good, you should be able to walk again in less than a week.”

“That fast?” Roman asked.

“Yeah,” Ruby said. “Aura healing can be a little freaky.” Ruby put her hand on her stomach and stood up. Neo would have to have it activated at all times and couldn't use it for her Semblance or combat. Not that she would be able to do much in her condition anyway.

Neo took a deep breath, and a white glow covered her body, causing her to relax.

_ Looks like the Aura healing and painkillers kicked in nicely, _ Ruby thought.  _ Now that that’s been taken care of… _

Faster than he could blink, Ruby spun around and punched Roman in the face, sending him stumbling back.

“Ow!” he said, putting a hand to his lip. “What the hell, Red?!”

“There were people back there!” Ruby yelled.

“I noticed. Your point?”

“How could you just leave them behind?”

“Last time I checked, the three of us left together, so don’t take it out on me, kid!”

“Damn it!” Ruby kicked Crescent Rose, which almost hit Neo’s arm as it thudded against the roots of the tree she was leaning against. “We should have helped them!”

“Red,” Roman said, “you are determined to be the hero aren't you? No matter how much you try, you can’t save  _ everyone! _ ”

“I… I never thought I would have to choose like that.” At the breach, it was close, but no one died, but then Beacon and now this settlement… Ruby was a Hunter. She wasn’t supposed to be this helpless.

Roman sat down on a nearby rock. “You got spirit, Red. But this is the  _ real _ world. The real world doesn't care about spirit. The real world is  _ cold _ . You want to be a hero? Then go for it.” He pointed back towards the settlement. “I’ll be over here, doing what I do best: Surviving!”

“That’s why you teamed up with the White Fang?” Ruby said. “Only because it would help  _ yourself? _ ”

“Congratulations, Red. You figured out my master plan.” Roman spread his arms out to present himself. “If you can’t beat ‘em, team up with the animals. Look at you. You actually tried to beat them and this where you are now.  _ I’m _ not stupid. I see where this war is going and it’s not something I can afford to lose.”

“I can’t do that if it means leaving people to die like that!” Ruby said.

“Roman gestured back towards the town. “Did you not hear me? Go! Have fun! Probably a couple troopers who would be mildly entertained by your attempt to save whatever’s left. You might even survive long enough for the Hunter to kill you personally. It’s the thing you guys are trained to do, isn’t it?”

Ruby wanted to argue, but she knew he was right.  _ That Hunter would kill me without a second thought. Just like… _

The soldier’s scream as she managed to hold back on pressing the trigger again ran through her head for the hundredth time that hour.

Ruby shook her head.  _ No! It’s Roman. He’s the bad guy here. Not me! _

“Why should I bother listening to you?” Ruby said.  “You’ve never protected anything in your life.”

“What do you know about me, Red? You’re just a kid shell-shocked by the fact that the world is more complicated than a children’s picture book!”

“And you’re just a coward trying to justify how pathetic you are!”

A gunshot next to them shattered their argument. Roman and Ruby covered their ears from the sudden cannon blast and turned towards Neo.

Neo was holding Crescent Rose, pointing its smoking barrel in the air, unamused. She pulled back the bolt action; the used casing shot out the side of the gun and bounced into a patch of grass. She tossed Crescent Rose to Ruby and held up her Scroll. 

_ “You done?” _

Ruby and Roman looked back at each other and stood down.

_ “Then let’s go,” _ Neo typed.  _ “Roman, carry me.” _

Roman picked up Neo and held her piggyback, and Ruby picked up the backpack and their gear. They started walking further into the forest.

“We should get as far as we can from here tonight,” Ruby said.

“Right,” Roman said.

Four days into their journey and three still left. Ruby stole one last look over her shoulder in the direction of the smouldering settlement and quietly led they way through the pitch black forest.

 

* * *

 

A young sixteen-year-old girl caught her breath as she wandered through a dirty alleyway. She switched off her Semblance and her hair transformed back to pink and brown. Her eyes shifted back to her natural heterochromia. She’d gone for green eyes today, which looked good with the black ponytails.  _ I think I’ll keep that look, _ she thought.

The girl undid her hair bands, letting her hair fall before redoing it back into a ponytail. Even with her stolen coat and thick winter gloves, it was cold in Mistral. The rain season brought the drop in temperature which sucked for a street rat like her with nowhere to go. She dug through a trash can, hoping to find something, hopefully, to eat. Unsurprisingly, there was nothing.

A raindrop hit her on the forehead; she looked up out of the alley. Somehow, rain made it all the way down here, even the scum stuck at the bottom of Mistral’s layered city couldn’t avoid the rain. She moved closer to the building’s walls to avoid getting soaked in the rain shower.

The girl made her way around a corner where she saw him. A young man, who looked to be in his early twenties, was slumped on the ground leaning against a dumpster and doing a poor job at it. He was holding a gun in his lap and from the blood on his white clothes, he got hit at least once himself. Above his jacket--now also stained with mud and god knows what else--he was wearing a red and white striped scarf and, most noticeably, over his red fluffy hair he had on a stupid bowler hat with a feather in it.

_ Dresses crazy for the attention, no doubt, _ she thought. She couldn't relate. Her Semblance luckily made it easier to fit into places without causing a scene, which her natural hair and eyes always did. They made it impossible to pick pockets and shoplift when they drew that much attention.

“What do you want?” the young man mumbled.

The girl flipped him off.

“...Fair,” he said.

She ignored him as she started to dig through the dumpster he was collapsed against. She didn’t find much. Some cans, a bag of plastic, a half-empty pack of cigarettes, and some broken bottles. Nothing she could use.

The guy coughed up some blood as she looked back down at him.

“What’s your name, kid?” he asked.

She fingerspelled,  _ “N-E-O.” _

“Oh,” he said. “Deaf, huh?”

_ “Mute,” _ she signed.

“Yeah, I have no idea what you’re saying.”

The girl rolled her eyes and hopped out of the dumpster. She sat down at its base next to the orange haired dude and handed him the half pack of cigarettes.

His eyes lit up. “Oh?” He grunted in pain and sat up. “Thanks.” He pulled a lighter out of his jacket pocket and started smoking.

She leaned her head back against the metal and looked up. She could see stories of rusted and cramped buildings lining the foundations of the Kingdom. Just above that, the edges of the main level of the city and even further up, the golden towers that pierced the dark rain clouds that seemed like they were miles away. It felt like the pressure from all those layers of city crushed her and everyone else down here.

The guy next to her exhaled with his head slumped down. The cigarette smoke slowly drifted up as it escaped the alley between the raindrops.

  
  


When Neo woke up, it was still raining. Ruby and Roman had switched carrying duties while she was asleep, so her face was now pressed against the back of Ruby’s red cloak. Roman was a couple of yards in front of Neo and Ruby, carrying their gear. Both her traveling companions quietly looked forward while following the trail. It looked like they hadn’t realized Neo was awake yet. 

It was hard to tell the time from the grey skies, but Neo guessed late morning. They must have walked all night. No one was in the mood to stop for anything but a short rest anyway. Neo looked up past the trees above her. The sky seemed a lot closer out here. She thought back to that day six years ago and couldn’t decide if it felt like forever ago, or just yesterday. She and Roman had gone on to climb out of the bottom of Mistral. Ups and downs along the way. After that first meeting they just… stuck together. Life and death situations, run-ins with Mistral mobs, meeting The Bandit and working for the White Fang, etc. A lot had happened in six years. But it had always been her and Roman from the beginning.

The winter rains she was all too familiar with continued for the next day and a half of hiking. The trio mostly stayed silent. Between the attack, the injury and the rain, no one was in a talking mood.

The Aura healing was progressing nicely. She could feel it stitching her leg back together and was really glad they had more painkillers in the medkit because the accelerated healing sucked. Neo always thought it felt like watching one of those videos on the network that showed sped up footage of plants growing, but if you were feeling that. Bodies were not meant to heal this fast, and the process took a lot out of Neo, so she slept a lot the next day of the hike.

Neo was awake for parts of the journey, mostly a lot of walking through the forest, crossing fields and streams. Roman’s foot slipped on a rock, and his boot got soaked. Later that morning, the rainstorm got really bad, so the three of them sat under a tree to stay dry. The splash of raindrops that hit the leaves and puddles around them had a soft melancholy beat. In that music was a comforting peace like the world was frozen in that storm.

Either that or Neo had taken way too many painkillers.

Roman was leaning against the tree trying to light his cigarette with his metal lighter. He’d run out of cigars a couple days ago, but he made due. Ruby was taking the chance to clean Crescent Rose (yeah, she had a name for the thing) and double checked that it didn’t need any repairs. Neo tucked her head deeper into her coat’s hood, and listened to the rain. She stared out at the drops of water forming on the leaves above them which rolled down together, hanging off the edge until they dropped and splashed against the ground with the rest of the symphony of raindrops.

The next time Neo was awake, the rain had stopped and Ruby was piggybacking her again. Roman was a little ways behind them on the trail, but he wasn’t falling too far behind, so Ruby kept walking as long as he was in sight. Neo reached into her pocket and pulled out her Scroll. With one hand she typed a message and reached around Ruby’s shoulder and pointed the screen at Ruby’s face.

_ “Long time no see, stranger,” _ Neo wrote.

“I guess,” Ruby said. “How’s the leg feeling?”

_ “Probably good enough to start using crutches soon,” _ Neo wrote.

“Well if you want to give them a try, I can make some for you,” Ruby said.

Neo held her Scroll for a minute before she finally typed, _ “I don’t think I ever thanked you.” _

“For what?”

_ “Taking the job.” _

"To be honest, I don't really know why I agreed either," Ruby said as they found a good boulder on the side of the path to rest on to wait for Roman to catch up.

_ “Yeah, I was expecting to work a lot harder to convince you.” _

“So why did you ask me?”

The first couple times Neo met Ruby, she took her for one of those fancy bastards who went to the fancy school and was molded their whole lives to become a problem for people like her. The people just trying to survive. But Ruby had worked for it, dedicated her life for it. She fought her way to Beacon whether she knew it or not and that was something Neo understood.

There was something about Ruby’s eyes the day after the Beacon attack. You wouldn’t have been able to tell they were bright silver by how dim they were. The last time she saw eyes like those was leaning against a filthy dumpster with some stranger. His face showed a man who’d lost everything. Neo understood that feeling, and she guessed that Roman saw the same thing on her own face back then too. Why else would they stick together afterwards for seemingly no reason?

Neo didn’t know what had happened, but Ruby lost something she was fighting for and, without even thinking about it, Neo wanted people like them to stick together.

_ “I thought it would be funny,”  _ Neo eventually typed,  _ “us working together.” _

“Well, you got me there,” Ruby said.

After a couple minutes, Roman dragged his feet up to them and dropped his bags at the base of the rock as he sat down next to Ruby.

_ “How goes it?” _ Neo typed.

Roman gasped for breath. “You’re carrying me on the way back.”

Neo laughed, and even Ruby smirked a little.

“Have you been keeping the straps tight?” Ruby said. “It will feel like it weighs more if--”

“Yeah, I remembered, Red,” he said. “Pass the water.” Ruby did, and he gulped down half the bottle.

“Hey, Roman?” Ruby said sinking into her hood. “I just wanted to apologize about the other night. I was more mad at myself than I was at you, and I shouldn’t have lashed out in a situation like that. So… sorry about that.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Roman said while putting the cap back on the water. “You weren't really that wrong anyway.”

Neo leaned forward and looked at the two of them sitting next to each other.  _ Well, what do you know?  _ She smiled.

“Anyways,” Ruby said. “If we go at least another eight miles before we camp tonight, we should have no problem getting there sometime tomorrow morning.” Ruby hopped off the rock and picked up the backpack, adjusting it to fit her.

Roman lay back on the boulder. “You always get to rest longer,” he grumbled.

“Come on,” Ruby said holding out her hand.

Roman grabbed it as she pulled him up off the rock. He picked up Neo, and he and Ruby continued down the trail side-by-side.

 

* * *

 

Yang’s motorcycle came to a stop at the bottom of the hill. She kicked down the kickstand and started walking up the road, the dirt crunching beneath her boots. She was wearing one of her old jackets, a grey one, an orange top and gray-brown cargo pants. Once she reached near the top, she crouched and peered over the edge. Down the road about half a mile was a dozen Atlas soldiers and a Paladin mech who had set up another military roadblock all the way out here.

“Damn it,” Yang whispered.

Her journey east had been slowed down several times over the past few days because Atlas was in full force out here. And she was trying to avoid them as much as possible. It would be much faster to get to the settlement as the bird flies, but all these detours away from the people with more guns than she had, combined with the confusing back roads, made the journey longer than her patience could deal with.

Yang made her way back down the hill and walked back to her stolen bike. It’d already been what? Four days since she left Vale? Had Weiss found Ruby yet? Yang lost her Scroll a couple days back so she couldn’t find out even if she wanted to. Not that it mattered. She didn’t want anyone coming after her; that was the priority. She knew where Raven is. Or at least where Raven was less than a week ago. But it was a lead, which is more than she could say she’d ever had in her whole life.

The guilt of almost getting Ruby killed made her push her search to the side for ten years. But she didn’t have a lead on Ruby, and Ruby, more than anyone she knew, could take care of herself. 

At least that's what Yang had to tell herself. 

Raising her chin, Yang buried her feelings down deep. She couldn't let her guilt get in the way anymore. She'd been searching for years, and finally, she had a direction, a sliver of hope at finding her, and Yang wasn't going to abandon that. Not for anyone.

Yang’s hands were shaking when she turned the engine back on. With a jerk of the wheel, Yang spun her bike around and drove off to find another route to her mom.

 

* * *

 

Winter was going to have to get used to the color orange because she would be wearing it for the rest of her life. She sat alone in her cell in her new prison garb. On her wrist was an aura suppression band, a device that sends a huge surge of lightning Dust into it’s wearing when they try to activate their Aura, destroying said Aura and incapacitating the prisoner. The Kingdoms used them for Aura-user criminals, like her.

She hadn’t heard anything from Weiss in the last couple days. She hoped it was Ironwood not letting anyone see her, but after Winter hid the truth from her, and everything else Weiss had gone through, it was just a hope. Since Winter hadn’t said anything during the interrogations, General Ironwood kept her in solitary confinement. He was trying to break her.

_ So if anyone out here is wondering,  _ she thought, _ everything is going peachy.  _ You’d think they would be smart enough to avoid the information extracting methods they trained into her and that she helped them carry out when she practically ran this operation. But apparently not.

When she was back in the academy, things were so much simpler. Disowned by her father but finally free of that abusive household, Winter ruled the campus. In sparring matches she was unbeatable. She had plenty of fond memories taking down other Hunters-in-training with her dual swords. Winter liked to pose for the audience after a victorious strike and give them a thrill. Some of the freshmen couldn't restrain themselves from applauding, which always annoyed the professors.

Winter had the respect of her peers, the admiration of the younger students, the professors offering her every position they could find once she graduated. Her path to becoming a Hunter was set, she just needed to pick the variation that worked best for her ambitions.

General Ironwood was the one who ended up recruiting her into his personal special forces. "Anything to help, sir," she'd said, hiding her pride in how far she'd come, her pride in how far she'd continue to go through her career.

And then she pulled the trigger.

The sound of the shell rolling under a wooden floorboard of the apartment was deafening. Winter couldn’t look away from it. She kept calling it “it” because it used to be a person and… oh god. It was everywhere. Her white Atlas uniform was coated as the gun fell from her hands into a wet puddle. Winter swore she could see the stains in her hair for weeks.

Her pride, all the promotions, her career, her country, Ironwood. Everything that had once been so important was gone with a twitch of her finger…

Winter looked forward at the cell wall in front of her.  _ Let’s face it, _ she thought.  _ The White Fang isn’t coming.  _ She was going to die in a room like this. They would transfer her to a hole in Atlas, probably one she was very familiar with, and just forget about her there. Atlas wouldn’t admit that one of their top officers was a spy to the public and there would be no trial. She would either waste away surrounded by concrete, or just wait for the day they needed the spare room and was taken out back with a bullet put in her brain.

A bunch of muffled footsteps outside the door to her cell snapped her out of her premonition. Winter turned towards the cell door. It sounded like bodies falling, some energy surges, but no gunshots or…

A white glyph appeared on the metal cell door.

“Shit!” Winter dove into the corner of the cell as the door exploded outwards, embedding itself into the wall across the hallway outside. Winter stood up and double checked that she hadn't been hit by any shreds of metal.

Weiss walked into the cell, holding her rapier. She looked around until she spotted Winter in the corner. “You alright?”

Winter nodded.

“Then let’s go!” Weiss grabbed Winter by the hand and they started running.

Alarms were blasting through the command center. The emergency lights Winter helped install were flashing red, and every alarm from security to fire was piercing her ears. “How did you--” Winter started.

“No time!” Weiss panted as she pulled Winter into the stairwell and started running up.

They burst onto the roof. It was dark outside, and the lights of the city under them were almost blinding. A small airship was waiting for them at the platform, the unconscious bodies of some Vale officers lying around them as they ran to the ship.

They climbed in, and Weiss started up the engines. As they started to lift off the roof, Winter turned to see a dozen Atlas officers burst onto the roof just in time to get a couple shots off at the ship while Weiss yanked the controls and piloted them away from the tower as fast as possible.

“Where the hell did you learn to fly an airship?” Winter asked from the copilot seat.

“I’ve been taking some simulations for the last two days,” Weiss said.

Winter tightened her grip on the armrest.

After spotting a flashing in the ship's mirrors, Winter looked behind them. There was already three Vale police ships in pursuit.

“What’s the plan?!” Winter yelled.

Weiss pointed forward and up: Beacon. 

The green light of the CCTS tower was their light at the end of the dark tunnel. It just seemed really far away right now. Some gunshots from the police ships flew over the cabin.  _ Even farther away now,  _ Winter thought.  _ Great. _

“Come on. Come on!” Weiss said gritting her teeth. She pushed the ship as fast as it could go as she charged the academy.

“What the hell are you doing?!” Winter yelled.

“Screw you!” Weiss yelled back.

Winter heard another bullet; that one was way too close.

“You’re on thin ice, sis, but I’m not going to just let them take you away! And I’m not going to just let my friends leave me. I’m getting  _ you _ back! I’m getting  _ Ruby _ back! I’m getting them  _ ALL _ back!”

The ship climbed higher and higher until it was almost at Beacon. A bullet caught the hull, a sickening thunk rung out inside the cabin as Weiss’s airship crossed the campus line.

Winter gasped. She hadn’t realized how long she was holding her breath.

The police pursuit broke off from the chase and swerved to avoid getting trapped in White Fang territory.

“Just as planned!” Weiss yelled. “Whoooooo!” She pumped a fist in the air but then immediately put both hands back on the controls once the ship lurched to the side a little. Not a good driver.

Winter smiled and calmed her breathing before she looked outside the front window of their airship.

“What about these guys?” Winter asked.

Weiss’s ship was surrounded by five White Fang attack shuttles. The ex-Atlas ships, now painted red and black, had them surrounded; Dust cannons primed and ready to fire at the intruders. Spotlights from the ships and from the ground lit up their--very small feeling--airship. Winter could even see a whole squad of white Fang mobilizing beneath them on the yard of the school.

Weiss looked around at their welcoming party and laughed nervously. “Honestly, I didn’t think this far ahead.”


	24. Fated Meeting

The Faunus rebels surrounded the small ship as it touched down on the campus lawn. The grass shook as the engines whined down and the soldiers raised their rifles at whoever was in the small airship. The White Fang hadn’t let their guard down from the moment they spotted the intruders approaching the school. It was the first time someone had dared infiltrate their territory, and they were ready.

The metal door at the side of the ship slid open; Winter and Weiss slowly stepped out with their arms raised.

“Adam Taurus?!” Winter yelled out over the dozen armed guards.

“This is your plan?” Weiss whispered.

“So when I improvise it’s not okay?” Winter whispered back.

Weiss sighed. She knew that Winter had connections with these… people, but they had  _ a lot _ of guns pointed at them.

“Stand down!” A voice ordered as its owner parted the soldiers as he approached the ship. Weiss recognized him from the news. Adam Taurus. He walked in front of the other White Fang as he ordered all but six soldiers leave. “Winter Schnee,” he said with his remaining Faunus guard. “It’s been a while.”

“Adam,” Winter said. “You redecorated the place.”

“Search them,” Adam said to one of his soldiers. One of the Faunus roughly patted down Winter.

“Hey,” Weiss said. She was ready to jump to her sister’s rescue again, but since Winter seemed to accept its necessity, Weiss didn’t resist her own search.

After a quick and thorough inspection of the ship and Weiss’s bags, Adam was satisfied. “Give them a room,” Adam said as they started to walk along the walkway through the center of campus. Weiss expected the school to have completely changed over the past week, but even with the new occupants, it was still familiar. The Faunus soldiers, the additional reinforcements along the walls and weapons were jarring, but the gardens were the same, the buildings… well, something happened to the cafeteria alright, but somehow after everything, it was still the same old Beacon.

“You need to tighten up your front guards’ reaction time,” Winter said.

“You’ll have to forgive me for going easy on a ship in distress being pursued by Vale security,” Adam said.

“Exactly,” Winter said. “You never know who to trust.”

“Well I guess the spy would be the expert,” Adam said. “When we heard you were discovered, we feared the worst.”

“Well I’m not out of friends yet,” Winter said, putting an arm around Weiss’s shoulders.

“Speaking of…” Adam looked at Weiss. “You’re stretching my policy on you to apparently  _ all _ disowned Schnee.”

“I vouch for her,” Winter said. “All responsibility. She’s the one who got me out of there after all.” She turned to the other White Fang escorting them. “Do you have something for…” Winter waved her wrists showing her Aura suppression band. One of the soldiers walked up to her and started tinkering with it. “Just don’t set it off.” The band snapped off. Winter rubbed her wrist and thanked the Faunus.

Adam turned to Weiss. “We owe you our thanks for rescuing her then.”

“I follow her lead,” Weiss said, “so you don’t have to worry about me.” She frowned. It wasn’t like she did it for them.

“Well, some good people seem to trust you,” Adam said and left it at that as they entered the dorm.

Weiss and Winter were given one of the unused dorm rooms and a chance to talk alone. “Honestly,” Weiss said after the White Fang had left them, “I was worried they were going to kill us.”

“Adam knew I was involved so it worked out,” Winter said. “You’re plan was risky, but worth it.”

“They seem a lot more… normal than I expected. Adam doesn’t seem like someone who would start a war with the Kingdoms?”

Winter sat on the bed. “There’s a lot going on. If I was going to sum up Adam’s plans, it’s to put pressure on the Kingdoms to pass international laws that give Faunus more liberties. He and Khan have other goals, of course, but after he saw that I could get the codes to take over the Atlas fleet, he put together the whole plan and Khan gave him the mission.”

“That makes sense I guess, but…” Weiss sat down on the bed next to Winter. “What happened with you? Why did you join the White Fang? I’m pretty sure this is new.”

Winter laughed quietly. “Not really. I got recruited about a year after I graduated from Atlas Academy. My mission was to rise through the ranks and send information to my contact. I started working more with giving information to Queen after that, making backdoors for her to exploit or sending her master codes, etc. Do as much as I could from the inside in a position that none of the White Fang’s operators could get close to. Eventually, I worked my way up to General Ironwood’s most trusted specialist, and here we are.”

“Sorry, it’s just a lot to take in. Did you pretend to be loyal the whole time? You must hate Ironwood to do this, so how did you pull that off?”

“I was the heir to the SDC for a long time. You pick up some skills.”

“Good point, but still... Turning against Atlas? All the Kingdoms?”

“I do believe that what I’m doing is in the Kingdom’s best interests. I don’t want war. Khan thinks it’s inevitable, but I hope she’s wrong. I know you were a student and this doesn’t really click until you go out into the field, but Hunters are not as effective as they say they are. Grimm attacks could be better prevented but Kingdoms won’t invest in them. Ozpin tries his best, but he’s not fixing the problem. It’s like putting a pinky in the crack of the dam rather than fixing the damn… dam. And Ironwood’s goals to absorb Hunters into the the military will only make it worse by taking the little support the settlements have. So, of course I want to be part of an operation that knocks them down a peg. If Hunters can’t even protect themselves, maybe people will demand alternative solutions. It’s a start.”

Weiss nodded. Everything she’d seen of Hunters and Atlas after the battle of Beacon had been untrustworthy. As much as it pained her, their propaganda didn’t hold up to scrutiny.

“So, my turn for a question,” Winter said.

“Go ahead,” Weiss said.

“Why did you help me? You never had a reason to trust the White Fang, and I lied to you. I lied this whole time, and you still broke me out like it was nothing.”

“...You’re my sister,” Weiss said. “I wasn’t going to just let you stay in there.”

“With the whole disowned thing in recent memory,” Winter said, “I thought you didn't put a lot of stock in blood.”

“I don’t,” Weiss said. “That’s how much I care about you.”

Winter hugged Weiss. “Thank you.”

Weiss smiled. “I meant what I said. I’m done with this bullshit.”

Winter laughed. “I got the message when you screamed it at me earlier.”

Weiss smirked. “Yeah. You deserved it though.” She looked towards the window and out at the dark campus outside. “Speaking of…”

 

* * *

 

Her insomnia had improved the last couple nights, but Blake still didn’t get much sleep by the time morning rolled up. Blake dragged herself out of the dorm, still half asleep. Just when she was about to finally rest her eyes, there had been another loud commotion outside.  _ It must have been another drill, _ she thought thinking back on it.  _ Who the hell was running drills in the middle of the night?  _ Today she was helping in Azul’s kitchen; it was a good thing she knew the campus like the back of her hand because her eyes were closed for the entire walk.

As Blake entered the cafeteria, she was surrounded by quiet muttering from the breakfast crowd.  _ Everyone seems less rowdy today,  _ Blake thought.  _ Did something happen? Whatever, too tired to think about it. _

Blake walked into the kitchens and grabbed some coffee from the pot. It tasted awful, but she tried to drink it as quickly as she could.

“You slept through the party, kid,” Azul said handing a tray of food to a Faunus over the cafeteria counter.

“Were we attacked?” Blake asked.  _ God, this coffee sucks. _

“No. We just had some unexpected visitors.”

“What does that mean?” Blake said. She needed to finish the coffee, so she forced herself to take another gulp.

“Apparently, two of the Schnees were working with us, and they landed in the middle of the campus last night. Everyone’s freaking out.”

“Schnee?!” Blake spat out her coffee. Before she could ask any questions, her ears perked up when she heard a pair of heeled boots clicking against the tile outside of the kitchen.

Blake knew that stride anywhere. She looked back through the doorway into the cafeteria.

The Faunus’ muttering practically silenced as everyone’s eyes looked at the human staring at Blake.

Blake and Weiss made eye-contact.

Weiss stopped in her tracks at the sight of Blake. Her expression changed from relief to rage.

_ “Belladonna!!!” _

“Oh shit!” Blake yelled as she quickly set down her mug and looked around the kitchen for the emergency exit.

Before Blake could dive through the small window, Weiss burst into the kitchen, ignoring Azul’s confused expression and stormed right up to Blake’s face. She raised a finger like she was about to lay down the law when she turned and saw the entire cafeteria watching them from the other side of the counter.

Weiss grabbed Blake by the wrist and dragged her out the back of the kitchen, much to Blake’s protests. 

Blake stumbled down the back steps outside as Weiss closed the door behind them. “What the hell are you doing here? How the hell? Why are…?”

“ _ Screw  _ you, Blake!” Weiss yelled down from the top of the steps.

That snapped Blake right out of her confusion. “Excuse me?”

Weiss stomped down the steps to Blake’s level.  “You split up the team! I have some stuff to say to you Blake, but before that, I need to get this off my chest and over with: Screw. You!”

Blake frowned and narrowed her eyes. If she wanted to do this now, then so be it. “You want me to apologize? Because I don’t--”

“No!” Weiss said, trying to calm herself down. “That’s not what I came to say. I just needed to vent because it’s all just so frustrating!”

“Then what do you want?”

“I want you to listen to me!”

“And what is it this time?!”

“I’m sorry!” Weiss said, barely holding back a sob. “Blake, I’m…” Weiss ran forward and squeezed Blake with a tight hug. “I’m so sorry.”

“Hey,” Blake said, surprised by Weiss’s sudden turnaround. She patted Weiss’s back and hugged her back. “Hey, you’re good. Okay?”

“I’m not, and you know it,” Weiss said.

“Alright, fair.”

Weiss laughed as she pulled away from the hug and punched Blake’s arm. “I missed you, you stupid jerk.”

Azul was luckily in a good mood that morning and was fine with Blake having some time alone with Weiss. They got some breakfast and canned coffee from the vending machine and sat on the back steps where they could talk in private. Weiss filled blake in on Winter being a spy for the White Fang, Weiss’s infiltration into the command center to save her and her escape plan for asylum here at Beacon. Blake was barely able to process that Winter Schnee of all people had been a spy by the end of the story.

“That’s… a lot,” Blake said.

“What? You don’t think I’m capable of it?” Weiss said. “I’ll have you know that the prison break went off without a hitch.” Weiss laughed with pride.

“I just never thought you’d turn into an enemy of the state in less than two weeks,” Blake said.

Weiss’s laugh froze. “Oh my god, I can never set foot in the Kingdoms again, can I?”

“Nope,” Blake said. “Welcome to the club.” Blake clanked her coffee can against Weiss’s, and they both laughed.

Somehow, Beacon hadn't been the same without Weiss and her stupid attitude and personality. Of all people she could get close to, she made friends with this reckless Schnee idiot.

“I take it you couldn’t rope Ruby and Yang into your little insurrection?” Blake asked.

Weiss went silent. “Yang and Ruby… The truth is I don’t know where they are.”

“Huh?” Blake said.

“Yang ran off a couple days ago and Ruby’s been missing since the Beacon attack.”

_ Oh my god, _ Blake thought. She dropped her coffee can; it bounced down the steps.

“I hoped that Ruby would be here, but I guess not. Did you see her during the attack?”

“Yeah, we fought. She was fine though! I thought she escaped before we took total control of the campus.”

“Well she didn’t go back to Vale,” Weiss said. “She just vanished.”

The image of a red-cloaked defenseless figure appeared in Blake’s mind. Ruby’s voice that night had been hollow and defeated. Crushed by Blake. Another image of Ruby wandering off to find someplace alone to--

_ Stop it! _ Blake thought. She couldn’t let herself think like that.

“What do we do?” Blake asked.

“I’m finding them,” Weiss said. “That’s what I’m doing next.”

“How?”

“I don’t know,” Weiss sighed. “But now that you’re here, I’m not planning on letting you out of my sight any time soon.”

Blake chuckled. “Is this your way of getting back at me?”

“Best I can do, you dolt,” Weiss said.

Blake leaned back against the steps. She couldn’t keep running away from her mistakes forever, and if she was ever going to fix them, there was only one direction to go. She sat up and turned to Weiss. “I know where to start.”

 

* * *

 

“Hello!” Roman called up at the gate in front of them.

A Faunus guard poked his head over the wall and looked down at the three humans.

“Hi?” Ruby said. She, Neo and Roman waved up at him. Neo was on a pair of crutches next to her ragged traveling companions, all dirty and tired from the long trip.

The Snowdale settlement was a circular town on a hill surrounded by and overlooking the forest. The south gate that Ruby and company stood in front of faced a large field over two hundred meters to the forest's edge. The lumber walls were reinforced by steel and concrete and were six yards tall with walkways on the top to patrol or fight off the occasional Grimm.

“What are you folks doing in these parts?” The guard asked. “Pretty small for a caravan.”

“We’re meeting someone,” Roman called back.

“Who could that be?” the guard said. “Y’all seem a little too eccentric to be meeting anyone from ’round here.”

“Because she’s not from around here, pal.”

The guard stared down at Roman with a blank face.

Roman looked at Neo and then back at the guard. “Hello?”

“Wasn’t word for word, asshole,” the guard yelled down.

“Oh come on!” Roman said.

The Faunus raised his shoulders.

Roman sighed and glared back up. “She. Isn’t. From. Around. Here.”

The guard nodded and signaled for a Faunus below that it was alright to open the gate for them, then Roman, Neo, and Ruby walked inside.

Snowdale was an agricultural settlement, but in the winter, everyone holed up inside the walls. The population was almost completely Faunus, with a half dozen humans scattered around. The three new humans got a couple suspicious glances as they walked down main street. The caravans weren’t due for another week, and visitors never came out here, let alone three flashy ones. Neo kept up just fine after her practice using the crutches during the last half mile of the journey. Ruby had her hood up, and Roman looked unimpressed with the town. The only attractions nestled inside the brick and wood buildings was a small bar in a basement, and a saloon near the west wall. Not exactly his scene.

“Is this where she hangs out?” Roman said. “Because I’m from the Mistral slums and I pity these people.”

“What do you mean?” Ruby asked. “Sure it’s small, but they’ve got a nice settlement here.”

Roman raised an eyebrow.

_ “She’s from Patch,” _ Neo wrote.

Roman shuttered.

Ruby rolled her eyes as they passed a Faunus with a fox tail sitting on a porch along the side of the street.

“You’re late,” the Faunus said. Another Faunus with fox ears was standing near him in the shadows.

“I’ll have you know I’m right on time,” Roman said. He turned to Neo. “It is the seventh, isn’t it?”

“She’s waiting,” the Faunus with fox ears said. They hopped off the porch and led them down an alley to an apartment hidden between the cramped buildings. The three were escorted through a door which was bolted shut behind them.

The one with the ears walked into a back room through a bead curtain while the one with the tail waited in the corner, keeping an eye on the three newcomers. Neo and Roman took off their coats and tried to look presentable. Ruby tried to look small next to her companions and hid behind her hood.

The bead curtain moved and a tall, dark-haired woman with messy long hair entered with the fox-eared Faunus. She was wearing red and black combat gear and several beaded necklaces. Her Grimm mask covered her entire face and her presence felt like a dangerous predator.

_ So this is her, _ Ruby thought. Definitely looked the part after everything Neo and Roman said about her. Something about this woman was familiar, but Ruby either couldn’t or was too scared to place it. She had an air of power, the same one she’d seen from the Hunter back in the Burnsley settlement: like if you made one wrong move, she would tear you to pieces. Ruby turned and avoided eye-contact with the scary lady.

“You’re late,” The Bandit said.

“We had a little trouble getting here,” Roman said.

“Were you followed?” she said.

“No,” Roman said. He turned to Neo and whispered, “Red here doesn't count right?”

_ “Technically, we followed her,”  _ Neo wrote.

Silence fell in the room. The Bandit nodded at the fox-eared Faunus, who then left the room. “Who’s the shy one?” The Bandit said, facing Ruby.

Ruby almost squeaked.

“An acquaintance who hiked us here,” he said. “She’s cool.”

“You walked?” the Bandit asked.

“What, like it’s hard?” Roman scoffed.

From what Ruby could tell, the Bandit wasn’t a Faunus. White Fang never hid their Faunus features behind their uniforms, but Ruby couldn't see a tail, teeth or anything. The Faunus man came back a minute later with a cart. The crates on the cart were full of Vacuo cash, all physical. If the CCTS went down, Roman wasn’t going to let himself get paid with useless currency.

Ruby’s eyes widened. Neo never specified what amount they were getting and now that Ruby saw it… oh boy, that was a lot of money. Neo smirked at the hungry look on Ruby’s face. Ruby frowned at her and went back to silently observing the transaction.

Roman walked up to the cart and looked in one. He smiled and flicked the lid closed with a clank. He nodded at Neo, who smiled with glee. Job well done.

“Well I was expecting to have a ship, but with a couple of calls we can get someone to pick us up,” Roman said. “I’m sure you won’t mind if we stay in town for a couple days.”

The Bandit nodded at the fox guy by the door, and both the Faunus left together. “We’ll arrange one of our safe houses in town for you,” The Bandit said. “But you’re paying us back rent.”

Roman looked down at the pile of money. “Oh no!” he quietly said, grinning ear to ear.

Moving to leave the room, The Bandit turned and threw another look at Ruby. They made eye contact; Ruby gulped while turning away for a moment.

Ruby finally glanced back; The Bandit was frozen. She hadn’t just taken a pause in her step at the sight of Ruby’s face. She was trembling, even Ruby noticed it; everyone in the room noticed.

“Summer?” The Bandit said.

“Huh?” Ruby removed her hood. “How’d you know my mom’s…”  _ Wait, it couldn’t be. _

The Bandit reached up and pulled off her mask. She looked at Ruby with crimson eyes. Ruby had seen that face before. The hair and the eyes were wrong, and she was a generation older, but she looked just like Yang. 

“You’re… Ruby, right?”

Ruby finally remembered where she’d seen this woman before. From an old photograph that she found when snooping through Yang’s stuff.

_ “Holy shit!” _ Ruby screamed and pointed at The Bandit.

Roman and Neo looked at each other in concern. 

“Wha...? What? But… how…?” The Bandit’s aura of confidence and intimidation vanished with her flustered face.

“Raven?!” Ruby said.  _ What is my life right now! _

_ “Excuse me?”  _ Neo typed.  _ “What the hell? Do you two know each other?” _

“That’s Yang’s mom!” Ruby shouted.

“What?!” Roman yelled, and Neo presumably signed the same thing.

“God… damn it,” Raven grumbled and facepalmed.

Neo signed something. Ruby picked up on a couple signs. Something about “explaining something” about Yang and “cute?” Ruby wasn’t paying attention, but Roman smirked, and Raven looked at the pair in disgust.

“How are you here?” Ruby said.  “How did this… is this where you--?”

_ “Enough!”  _ Raven roared. She pulled out a hunting knife and rushed across the room and held it against Roman’s throat. Roman raised his hands. “What the hell did you do, Roman? And why did you target my family?”

“I swear to God this is the craziest coincidence,” Roman squeaked.

“Whoa whoa whoa,” Ruby said jumping between them. “I wasn’t recruited or targeted or anything. We’re not even friends.”

“We hate each other,” Roman said.

“He’s the worst,” Ruby said.

_ “Pure scumbag,” _ Neo typed.

“Even tried to kill me,” Ruby said.

“That doesn’t help, Red,” Roman said.

“Oh yeah...”

Raven sheathed the knife. She put back on the mask and turned towards Ruby. “You.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Ruby said.

“You will stay with your friends here and leave with them. Got it?” Raven ordered.

Ruby nodded.

“Good,” Raven said as she turned and started to leave the room.

“Wait a minute!” Ruby blurted out before she could even think.

Raven paused and looked back.

“Why?” Ruby said.

Raven turned towards Ruby and stared at her through an emotionless mask. “Why, what?”

“You just left Yang. How could you?!”

“You don’t know anything about me,” Raven said.

Ruby gritted her teeth. The image of a young girl desperately pulling a red wagon through the woods permeated in her mind. “I know you abandoned--”

“Get out!” Raven’s Aura activated. She swung her knife in front of her, barely missing Ruby but slicing through the air.

A red glow appeared behind Ruby, Neo, and Roman. Raven palm struck Ruby, pushing the trio stumbling backwards through the dark red void.

The world flipped upside down, and the three tumbled in a heap in the middle of the dirt road outside. Ruby crawled to all fours and looked up. The red portal was suspended in midair next to the two fox-faunus walking down mainstreet. They looked confused and glanced between each other at the pile of humans that fell down in the street next to them.

The portal above her vanished as it folded into itself. Ruby rolled over and laid her head against the dirt road while catching her breath.


	25. The Reason

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter where I lift a flashback fight scene panel for panel from the RWBY manga (I feel like its worth mentioning), and I realize I could have set up a backstory change much more.  
> Enjoy.

Ruby and Raven silently glared at each other. They were sitting on the floor of Raven’s apartment, on either end of a chabudai table. Raven poured green tea into Ruby’s cup and then her own.

“Thank you,” Ruby said and took the tea. It was the first words that either of them had said since Ruby showed up. She was trying to sound polite, but both she and Raven knew that the tension in the air could be cut with a butter knife. _The tea’s good though,_ Ruby thought. She didn’t usually go for it, but this was going to be a serious conversation--if they ever got to the talking part of it. _What the hell do I even say?_

A couple hours after she, Roman and Neo got dumped out on the street, Raven invited Ruby over for later that evening. She said that there were some things they needed to talk about, but even Raven didn’t sound happy about it.

Ruby looked around the room. They were sitting on the other side of the beaded curtain in Raven’s apartment, surrounded by patterned wall scrolls hanging on the walls. On one end of the room was a stove and the other was a cot with a map of Remnant hanging above it. On the cot was her White Fang Grimm mask and a large metal sheath that looked more like a crate than a weapon.

“Is that a multi-blade sheath?” Ruby asked.

“Rotary Dust blades,” Raven said. “I modified it around a central red Dust blade.”

“Red Dust blade?” Ruby said. “I think Adam Taurus had one of those.”

“Khan gives them to her most trusted lieutenants,” Raven said. “You’ve met him?”

“Yeah, long story,” Ruby said.

“What weapon type did you end up using?” Raven asked.

“Oh.” Ruby didn’t spring Crescent Rose out because she was indoors, but she did take it off her belt and held it out for Raven. “Scythe-type.”

Raven held the weapon for a second and inspected it. “Take after my brother, huh?”

“Well, I’m more of a speed fighter mixed with long range and he’s--”

“And he’s shotgun and close-range,” Raven said. “Yeah, I know.” Raven handed Crescent Rose back, and Ruby returned it to her belt. “How’s Patch doing?”

“It’s Patch,” Ruby said.

“So same old?” Raven said.

“Yep.”

Raven frowned and sipped her tea. “Beacon, huh?”

“Yep,” Ruby said.

“At fifteen? That’s… depressing.”

Ruby frowned. At first, she was intimidated by Raven, but now that she realized she'd been called here only for Raven to scowl in her direction, Ruby was annoyed. “You’re fun at parties aren't you. Are you sure you’re related to Uncle Qrow?”

Raven frowned. “We don’t get along,” she said and sipped her tea again.

“Well, I don’t know what Dad ever saw in you.”

Raven choked. She set the cup down, spilling a little and coughed up the tea that went down the wrong tube. “What?!” she croaked out. She hit her chest a couple times and wheezed, taking another drink of tea to try and wash it down. “Huh?!”

“You and Dad?” Ruby said. “You two were a thing before Summer.”

“WHAT? No. Ew. Wait, did _he_ tell you that?”

“No,” Ruby said. “I kinda pieced it together myself and guessed?”

“No!” Raven said, looking a little sick from both the choking and the accusation.

“Wait, then who were you… oh…”

“After a couple years, Summer and I wanted a kid,” Raven said.

“Oh my god,” Ruby said. Her mom and Raven were together. She got Summer and Dad’s relationship with Yang’s mom backwards. No one ever talked about it, so she just assumed and… _Oh god._

“Tai was the doner--long story there-- but me and him? No.”

“Okay, too much info I don't want to know!”

“You’re the one who asked you little brat!”

_I thought I was only yelling at Dad’s ex_ , Ruby thought. _But now I’m yelling at Summer’s. Why is this weirder?_

Luckily, another sip or two calmed them down, and Ruby shifted the conversation elsewhere.

“How did you meet Roman and Neo?” Ruby asked. “They don’t seem like the White Fang’s type.”

“I found them during some work in Mistral. They’re a weird pair, but they get the job done. Especially if you need work that you don't want to bring Faunus into to avoid suspicion,” Raven said. “How did you get mixed up with them.”

“They needed someone to get them through the forest without taking the roads.”

“Huh,” Raven said.

That was it. Ruby couldn’t dance around it any longer. She came here to find out something, and she wasn’t going to leave until she got a satisfying answer.

“Why did you leave… I guess, Summer?” Ruby asked.

Raven sighed. She gestured at the Grimm mask by the weapon. “I joined the White Fang, okay. Not right away but you get the idea. Summer wasn’t a fan.”

“So you just walked away from being a Hunter?”

“Yeah.” Raven finished her drink.

“Was it hard?” _I’m supposed to be confronting her about Yang,_ Ruby thought. _Who are you asking these questions for?_

Raven rolled her eyes. “Once you’re out in the field you come to the realization that the whole thing is bullshit. You go to a place, mostly after a Grimm has killed some settlers, kill the Grimm, get paid and go home. Do you help give settlements the tech to defend themselves? No. But they’ll recruit from them sure enough and just keep throwing kids at the problem; helping just enough to keep things the same as they’ve been for the last century but never evolve or improve. And if you’re working for Roman and Neo now, you figured all this out faster than I ever did.”

“I don’t know anything!” Ruby said. “And I’m nothing like you.”

“You’re right,” Raven said. “You’re luckier.”

“I just have some stuff to work out. I haven't…” Ruby tried to come up with excuses, but Raven was right. She couldn’t see herself continuing training towards becoming a Hunter anymore. Not after what she’s seen.

“So what made _you_ leave?” Raven asked.

“What I was fighting for wasn’t what I thought I was fighting… for… you know?”

“No,” Raven said.

“I thought I would be protecting people. But instead everything a Hunter should be got messed up somewhere along the way.”

“Bit of advice kid,” Raven said. “Protecting the innocent isn’t in the job description.”

“So nothing means anything anymore and it’s all pointless,” Ruby said. “And everyone who died along the way--”

“Died for nothing.”

“It can’t be for nothing,” Ruby said. “Something has to be salvageable. I can’t just walk away from this.”

“I did.”

“You walked away from a lot of things,” Ruby said.

Raven ignored her. “The Kingdoms train kids as weapons. Literally every part of your training is to desensitize you to killing. They then point you in a direction and pull the trigger.”

Ruby’s left arm twitched as she remembered her near mechanical reflex to aim for the head after crippling the Atlas soldier.

“If Hunters were supposed to fight Grimm, to fight for humanity, then why learn how to fight anything that’s not a Grimm? You have a specialized role, but they don’t train you like that. Because your real role is to protect the Kingdoms. The Grimm are a threat to the Kingdoms, so you hunt them. Faunus are a threat to the Kingdoms so you would have hunted them. That’s the mission of a Hunter. Nothing was corrupted. There is no legacy to be tainted. It’s been shit the whole time. It’s just an empty lie to make Hunters look better. Personally, I don’t think the Kingdoms are worth it.”

Ruby thought back to the other day and the Atlas soldiers killing the people at the settlement. The disdain she always felt growing up from the Kingdoms taken to its logical extreme. They were disposable. Raven was right, and Ruby hated it.

Why did she care so much? Why did she want Hunters to mean something? Why did she not want to let go after everything she’d seen?

It was a stupid question, Ruby knew why. Every winter for the last ten years when she, her father and sister would hike through Patch’s forest to give their respects to the reason.

“Why did you become a Hunter?” Ruby asked.

“I was young. Qrow and I were good at fighting, and I wanted to lash out at anything I could, and the Academies paid and trained me to do it for them.”

Raven looked at Ruby.

“Why did you?”

  


Ruby remembered all the times she stared at Summer’s grave. She remembered all those nights when she wanted to sob into her pillow. It felt so empty in that house for so long. She wanted to cry to Yang and Dad about Summer and how she wished she was still here, but she kept quiet. She didn't want to hurt them. She didn't deserve to mourn her. After all, Ruby never knew her. Summer died while Ruby was too young to remember her all that much. All she knew was the absence, leaving her with a need she never learned how to cope with.

Ruby remembered the first time she killed a Grimm. She loaded the round into a Dust rifle while slowly walking up to the snarling Creep, its foot caught in one of the traps they’d set out earlier in the week. Ruby carefully aimed the barrel right at its eye, pulled the trigger, and smiled in catharsis.

Later she shot another Grimm, this time from a distance and no traps. Ruby hummed in satisfaction.

The first time she killed one with a gun-sword she was in the school’s pit. All the other students were impressed when she volunteered. It was small and weak, but it was still her first real battle. She won and was surrounded by the cheers of her peers and happily blushed ear to ear.

Ruby remembered her first battle with Crescent Rose. She built it herself and snuck out in the middle of the night to test it out. The full moon lit up the snow-covered forest in bright white light. A hoard of black shapes swarmed through the glowing trees at the figure of a young girl cloaked in blood red cloth with her scythe held out at her side, waiting for them.

Her warm breath hung in the air in front of her as the Beowolf at the head of the pack reared up on its hind legs and charged her in a blood rage.

Ruby swung at the Grimm, instantly decapitating it. She braced her legs, held her weapon back and pulled the trigger. A shot fired, launching herself into the swarm like a red lightning bolt. She spun, delimbing three Grimm in her flight path.

She spun down on a Grimm in the back of the pack, knocking it on its back as she landed on its chest. It looked up at her and tried to squirm away as she spun her scythe down, impaling it from the back of the skull, Crescent Rose's blade bursting towards her out of its open jaws. Ruby leapt back into the air and finished shredding the Grimm as she dragged it through the air behind her.

Folding Crescent Rose into its gun form, Ruby blasted off a Grimm’s arm and shoulder using the spray of gore to cover her transforming the scythe out once more and leapt onto another Grimm. She grappled it across the back of its neck and kicked into its chest, her weapon holding her in the air against the Beowolf. Ruby leaned forward an inch away from the bone-white mask of the creature. It gurgled as it realized how close the human was to ending it.

Ruby smiled and pulled the trigger. Crescent Rose whipped back form the recoil and ripped off the Grimm’s head. A geyser of black blood and red petals erupted as Ruby leaped off the corpse.

Ruby reloaded and ran into the remaining Grimm. She unfolded Crescent Rose as far as it would go until it looked more like a long spear than an actual scythe and charged the monsters. Like a hurricane of petals and shredded limbs, she tore through the last of the Grimm.

The snow exploded around Ruby as she landed effortlessly. A casing burst out of her weapon and hissed as it hit the icy ground.

Every kill, every bullet, Ruby had a smile on her face.

Then Ruby remembered a day shortly before she was invited to attend Beacon by Professor Ozpin. She was showing off an upgrade she made to her Crescent Rose by testing it out in the forest. Ruby swung and killed a Grimm like she was swatting a slug with a newspaper. Her weapon ripped out of its ribs with a crunch.

“Pretty cool, huh?” Ruby turned to her girlfriend she’d met at Signal.

She was so caught up in her successful design that she never noticed the expression on her date’s face. The horror at watching a girl you love hacking away with glee at a Grimm like a woodchipper.

The day after what Ruby had until now remembered as a fun date, her girlfriend broke it off.

No explanations or excuses, she left Ruby and broke her heart.

Only now, did everything make sense.

  


Ruby finished her tea and laughed.

“What’s so funny?” Raven asked.

“I just distracted myself.”

Raven looked around the room for anything to turn attention away from their conversation. “Are you stupid?”

“That’s why I became a… never mind,” Ruby said. “It’s funny. I never thought you would still be fighting after all this time.”

Raven glared at her. “ _Thanks_.”

“No its…” Ruby looked up and smiled. “I don’t know why, but I’m really glad you didn’t give up.”

Raven looked away and leaned her chin on her hand, hiding her embarrassment. “You’re way too much like your mom, you know that?”

“I get that a lot,” Ruby sighed.

Raven looked at Ruby up and down. “Maybe not. You’re a lot quieter than she was.”

“Really?”

“Fucking jabbermouth,” Raven said. “Never shut up.”

Ruby laughed. “What else about her annoyed you?”

“Do you know why she wore that white cloak?”

“No.”

“She wanted to be so good at missions that she could come back with her cloak still bleach clean. Until then, she thought she still needed training.”

“Did she ever do it?” Ruby asked.

Raven laughed. “Hell no! The laundry bill was ridiculous.”

Ruby chuckled with her.

Raven shook her head and sighed. “I’m just a sympathetic idiot after all. I told myself I invited you here to get more information, but I actually wanted to warn you against going back to the Hunters. I’m just as bad as the rest of you.”

“Huh,” Ruby said. “I didn’t even consider the odds that you were trying to help me.”

“Yeah, odds,” Raven said before mumbling to herself, “Like the odds of Tai being a donor at Patch’s sperm bank.”

“I said I didn’t need to know that!”

A silence fell on the conversation. Ruby moved to get another drink from her tea, but it was empty, and Raven stared off to the side of the room without making a sound.

“If you don’t mind,” Ruby said, “what’s a happy memory you have about Mom?”

Raven looked down. “We… we had this house on Patch in the middle of the woods. On warm evenings we’d just sit out on the porch and watch the wind in the trees. She’d reach over and hold my hand…”

Raven went silent and looked away from Ruby.

“I guess it’s not really anything all that interesting,” Raven said, “but it’s the little things that you miss.”

Ruby remembered a dance under the soft glow of a fountain… A sudden kiss on a bridge… Nuzzling up to each other in their hidden reading corner in the library…

Ruby nodded. “Yeah.”

  


The yellow street lights lit up the settlement's main street, giving off a warm glow against the cold night sky. Ruby walked under them with a grin on her face and a skip in her step. Sure, everything she’d lived for had been a lie, but somehow that felt as freeing as it was terrifying--like the world had opened up to her.

Roman and Neo weren’t hard to find loitering outside of the saloon. Neo was leaning against only one of the crutches that Ruby made for her earlier. Between her fantastic Aura healing talent and the medical assistance she received from the settlement’s doctor, she would move to a boot tomorrow and heal in the next few days with only a limp for a little while after that.

They were signing a conversation when they noticed Ruby walking up to them.

“Hey guys,” Ruby said.

“Oh, you’re alive,” Roman said.

_“You look upbeat,”_ Neo wrote.

“You know what?” Ruby said leaning against the wall with them. “I am.”

_“When you left you were 50% pissed and 50% terrified,”_ Neo typed. _“What happened in there?”_

Ruby laughed and played with the frayed edge of her cloak. “My family… we’re not good at the whole talking things out, and I think that I--probably both of us--used training to become Hunters and killing Grimm as a way to distract us from dealing with that.”

Neo and Roman exchanged a glance, a little confused at what Ruby was talking about.

“For so long, I couldn’t separate mom from Hunters and being heroic. This whole week I’ve been worried that if Hunters are bad, then she must have been bad too. But my mom being a Hunter wasn’t what made her great. I don’t know why that took me so long to realize.” Ruby looked at her two companions, still confused where she was going with this. “Sorry guys. I just had some major introspection about myself over there.” She looked up at the glowing fragments of the moon peeking from behind the clouds in the night sky. “I’m going to have to find my own way moving forward.”

“So you’re still going to try a shot at being a hero?” Roman said.

“Yep,” Ruby said. “Not in the way that Ozpin wants me to be, or even in the way that Summer was. But in my own way.”

“Well, your loss,” Roman said.

Ruby shrugged with a smile.

_“Well, this saloon was boring,”_ Neo typed. _“I heard the bar down the road has a pool table.”_

“Why not?” Roman said. “You coming, Red?”

Ruby nodded and walked alongside the two of them down the boardwalk. “I’ve been meaning to ask you guys,” she said. “When you guys get a ship out here, you wouldn’t mind giving me and my money a lift?”

“Sure,” Neo typed.

“Whatever,” Roman said. “Might as well at this point.”

“Thank you,” Ruby smirked.

They walked into the bar. Only a few Faunus patrons were in tonight, a few were playing cards at a table, two at the bar and one in the back at an old pinball table. Luckily no one was playing billiards, so Ruby and Roman started a game. Neo managed to climb up to sit on a barstool to watch while Ruby and Roman looked around for the chalk.

It had been a while since Ruby played, but she still hadn’t lost her skills, and Roman was good enough to get her competitive spirit going after a few games.

“You got a shot right here,” Ruby teased and pointed to the eightball dangerously close to one of the pockets.

“You’re just trying to distract me from my winning streak,” Roman said while he eyed up the shot and fired the cue ball. It hit another ball which fell into one of the holes at the edges of the table, but the cue ball spun to the side and hit the eight ball, sending it falling into the pocket.

Neo burst into snickers.

Roman sighed and leaned against the table. “Five out of nine?”

Ruby set down the pool cue. “Oh no. I’m quitting while I’m ahead.”

Roman shrugged. “Maybe another time.”

They sat down at one of the tables with Neo and the two adults got some drinks while Ruby got a milk.

“Hey, Red,” Roman said, “I’m just saying, but I wouldn’t mind it if after we get out of here, you kept following us around.”

Neo nodded. _“We could terrorize Vacuo together. Make a name for ourselves.”_

“Between you and Neo,” Roman said, “no one would dare mess with our crew.”

_“What do you say?”_ Neo asked.

Ruby smiled. She could imagine herself running around with these two for a while longer. Bailing Roman out of trouble, and once Neo recovered, they could practice duo moves for a unique fight style. It sounded fun.

“Thanks…” Ruby said but looked down at her glass. “I’d like that.”

_“But…”_ Neo wrote.

“I have some stuff I need to take care of before I start running off across Remnant,” Ruby said. “Sorry.”

Neo nodded. _“You’re always invited.”_

“Road trips are one thing,” Ruby said before another sip of milk, “ but if _this_ is how you two party than you’re not really selling it.”

They all laughed and ordered another round.

  


The night went on; Roman looked at his two companions sitting next to him at the bar. Ruby had a half-finished, non-alcoholic, strawberry super surprise ( _The hell type of name is that?_ Roman thought) in front of her while she leaned on Neo’s shoulder, asleep.

“Not even eleven,” Roman said, checking his watch.

_“After dragging us all the way out here, who can blame her for being exhausted,”_ Neo signed. She smirked when she looked down at Ruby. She was softly snoring, just loud enough to hear, but quiet enough that it was cute. _“So,”_ Neo signed. _“Here’s to another job well done.”_ She raised her glass and Roman clanked it against his own.

“Here’s to easily being able to pay back half our debts, and the White Fang’s attack on Mistral’s criminal underground conveniently erasing the other half.”

They drank, and Neo signed, _“You have to admit, Red turned out to be just the friend we needed.”_

“Ha. _Friend,_ ” Roman said. “Then again, you’ve always had low standards.”

“I was there, Roman,” Neo signed. “You’d never get that mad at someone trying to risk their life if you didn’t give a shit about them.”

Roman grumbled and avoided eye contact with her. “I’m still mad about her kicking me through a crate.”

Neo giggled, and Ruby smiled in her sleep.

 

* * *

 

Blake finished packing her bag and slung it over her shoulder. Gambol Shroud was sheathed, she had plenty of ammo, and all her positions were repacked with new gear for the trip. The White Fang had established the foundations here at Beacon, and as much as she wanted to keep helping, Blake had to leave. It wouldn't be for long, she would return as soon as she could, but she had something she had to take care of, for herself.

Blake knocked on Weiss’s room in the dorms. Weiss opened the door, and Blake entered. Winter was sitting at the back of the room on one of the beds next to Weiss’s packed suitcase. Weiss was wearing a short pale-blue combat dress with a blue shrug over the outfit and a white ribbon wrapped around her waist.

“Fancy,” Blake said.

“What? It’s for the road,” Weiss said.

_You call that an outfit for the road?_ Blake though. “You ready?”

“As ready as I can be,” Weiss said.

Earlier that day, Blake convinced Ilia to use her access at the CCTS to look for Yang or Ruby. They found traffic footage of Yang leaving the city and while they didn’t know where she was by now, they had a direction: East. They would start there; ask around and try to get any leads. Ilia really didn’t like even being in the same room as a Schnee, but--and Blake wasn’t sure why--Ilia didn’t need much convincing after Blake explained her plan to find her friends.

Weiss walked over to get her suitcase from Winter. “I guess this is it then,” she said.

“I’m not going anywhere for awhile,” Winter said. “I’ll be here helping out with White Fang intelligence and Adam until I find out where Khan wants to put me.” She looked down at Weis’s suitcase. “You sure you can’t stay?”

“We’ll lose the trail if we wait any longer, and this is our only lead,” Weiss said.

“I know,” Winter said. “This is something you need to do. I guess I'm just surprised how fast you’ve grown up.” She pulled out a disposable Scroll and handed it to Weiss. “Here. Call me on this if you get into any trouble.”

Weiss took the Scroll and hugged her sister. “I’ll get back as soon as I can.”

Winter nodded. “Be safe.”

“Thanks, sis.”

Blake turned away from the embrace to give the sisters a little privacy when she saw Ilia was at the open doorway looking for her.

“Your ship’s ready for you two,” Ilia said.

“Thank you,” Weiss said while breaking off the hug.

“Hey, Blake?” Ilia said. “Can we talk?”

Blake and Ilia walked down the hall to talk in private. “Thank you for convincing Adam to let me go so quickly,” Blake said.

“You owe me now, Blake,” Ilia said. “Got it?”

Blake smiled. “Got it.”

Ilia sighed and looked away from Blake.

“I’m sorry” Blake continued. “For leaving you guys again. You again.”

“No, this is good for you. You're not abandoning them. That’s good.”

“Really?” Blake said. “I thought you’d be more… mad.”

“I had probably a dozen arguments in my head I wanted to have with you if I ever saw you again,” Ilia said. “But… it’s over. I’m not the person I was when you left, and you’re not the person you were back then either. I’m ready to let go.”

Ilia leaned forward and kissed Blake. A quick one, not romantic, just one last goodbye for closure.

“Good luck,” Ilia said and walked away.

  


Weiss and Blake walked to the landings pad on the east end of campus. Basil helped them get Weiss’s small (borrowed with no intention of returning) ship repaired, refueled, loaded with supplies and moved to the landing pads where airships were supposed to be.

As they walked onto the pad, both of them saw Adam standing in the shadow of their ship. He was wearing his mask and had a hand on his sword as he looked up at the CCTS light while waiting for them.

“Ummm,” Weiss whispered. “Is this going to be a problem?”

“Just get in the ship and get it ready,” Blake said. “I’ll only be a second.”

Weiss walked forward, awkwardly stepped past Adam and climbed into the ship where she sat down in the passenger seat.

Blake walked up to Adam. He looked at her through his White Fang mask. “When Ilia told me you were leaving I was actually surprised.”

“But you’re still letting us.”

“Well,” Adam said, “I don’t think I could make you do anything even if I wanted to.”

Blake smiled sadly.

“If you’re looking for a girl in a red cloak,” Adam said, Blake’s ears perked up. “Some White Fang I know, the Albain brothers, say that Roman picked her up and they’re in Snowdale.”

“She’s alright?” Blake couldn’t contain her smile.

“Yeah, something about them hiring her to get through the mountains, but I’ll leave that conversation to you.”

Blake lowered her head. Now that she was leaving again, it felt weird saying goodbye this time. She was apologizing a lot lately, but she somehow never said it to him.

Just as she was about to open her mouth and do just that, Adam said, “I’m sorry.”

Blake looked up, surprised. “For what?”

“Maybe I pushed you too hard,” Adam said. “Who am I kidding. I did, and it wasn’t that. I made the same mistake that Atlas and the Hunters make. I only looked at you as a soldier instead of my friend, so for that, I’m sorry.”

He had his head lowered and was more open and honest than Blake had seen him in a long time. Maybe since before Khan took over the White Fang.

“Remembered back when we met during the protests?” Adam said. “We stuck together no matter what. I watched your back through anything; you were family and after all that I…”

Before he could react or say another word, Blake took a step forward and hugged Adam. He stiffened and hovered his arms behind her back as she squeezed him.

“We still are,” Blake said.

Adam held still for a minute, before hugging her back.

  


A minute later, Blake and Schnee’s ship lifted off and flew east towards the mountains. Adam watched them disappear over the Emerald Forest and took off his mask. His arm holding it dropped to his side.

It had been too long since he'd seen that look in Blake’s eyes. The eyes that showed her joy and determination, a young woman who wouldn’t let anything in the world stop her. Whoever the girl in the red cloak was, she meant a lot to that kid.

_Go get her,_ Adam thought. He smiled and turned back towards Beacon before anyone noticed he was missing.

When they were planning all this, he thought about picking a new name for the base to show that the White Fang had really taken control. To show Faunus everywhere that they could rise up and change the world. But, now that he was here, and he saw what they could do… Beacon fit just fine.


	26. Reunion

_ The rainstorm outside slammed against the side of the lecture hall as Ozpin sat in the dark classroom. Through the open blinds, he could barely see beyond the courtyard and the rest of Beacon Campus. The students had gone back to their dorms, and he was left alone grading their papers with the lights turned off for privacy. It was better to let people think he'd gone for the night than see him right now. _

_ Halfway through reading a student’s report, Ozpin braced himself against the desk and gritted his teeth. His leg was acting up again. The painkillers he’d taken earlier were not as effective as the doctors said they would be. The extra bottle he usually hid in his drawer was on his desk, tempting him to take an extra dose. He tried to ride through the attack, but the pain wouldn’t fade. _

_ “Hey teach!” The door to the classroom opened and one of Ozpin’s students, a young woman wearing a white cloak, walked in. _

_ Ozpin looked up at the carefree girl and put on his glasses, hopefully covering his current discomfort. _

_ “Just dropping off that report,” she said. _

_ “That was due yesterday, Miss Rose,” Ozpin said. _

_ “Yeah, yeah.” Summer dropped the paper on his desk. _

_ Ozpin sighed and picked it up. “I may be one of your younger professors, but I still have the same standards.” _

_ Summer pulled up a chair and sat in it backwards, facing Ozpin while leaning her folded arms on the back of the chair. “You’re no fun, you know that?” _

_ “It’s not my job to be fun,” Ozpin said. _

_ Summer grumbled something under her breath. _

_ Ozpin set her paper on top of a pile of other student papers and tried to discreetly grab the pill bottle off the desk and hide them back in his drawer. Summer noticed. _

_ “How you holding up?” Summer asked. _

_ Ozpin glared at her. “I get enough pity from the faculty,” he said. “I don’t need it from my students.” _

_ “Too late, bro,” Summer said. “When even was the last time you left campus?” _

_ “You have your entire career ahead of you, Miss Rose,” Ozpin said. “Don’t waste your time worrying about charity cases like me.” _

_ Summer scoffed. “Fuck off, man.” _

_ “Language, Miss Rose.” _

_ “You train all of us. You can do more as a teacher than any of us could do out there in the field.” _

_ Ozpin looked at her. “Flattery won’t get you a higher grade, Miss Rose.” _

_ “I didn’t… well, it would've been nice, but seriously, man. All the training, everything you teach us…” Summer stood up. Ozpin looked up as she smiled and folded her arms. “You’re the greatest Hunter I’ll ever know. I think you’re incredible.” _

  
  


“Summer,” Ozpin mumbled. He lifted his head from his desk and straightened his glasses. Gone was the old classroom. Gone was the young man with a stack of papers to grade. And in its place, was his new office at Vale and Atlas’s makeshift headquarters.

He sighed and put back on his glasses.

A knock on his office door shook him out of his memories. “Come in,” he said as General Ironwood walked into the room and closed the door behind him.

“We found the last of the damage Schnee made to our security system,” he said, a touch of anger in his voice. “I never thought your students turning for the White Fang would become such an issue for you.”

Ozpin ignored him. There were others who were hurt more by Branwen’s betrayal, and Schnee’s rescue of her sister could have been avoided if Ironwood had handled the situation with patience. “Any word from our new neighbors,” Ozpin asked.

“The White Fang has decreed that both Winter and Weiss Schnee are under their protection and political asylum,” Ironwood said. “Unfortunately, your council isn’t preparing any counterattack in response.”

“And what do you want me to do about it? The Vale and Atlas councils aren't exactly answering my calls,” Ozpin sad. “I’m being pushed out fast. I’ve been a council member long enough to have seen it before.”

“Perhaps if you focused more on getting your school back than more personal projects…”

“What do you want, Ironwood?” Ozpin said.

“I guess I’m going about it in a bad way, but to thank you,” Ironwood said. “For allowing my forces to conduct raids and recruit your Hunters for the fight.”

“We need as much help as we can get,” Ozpin said. The Atlas government was trying its best to distract from the disaster of losing their fleet by sending down ships to help Vale guard the Kingdom and the settlements on the continent.

“I will personally be joining the raiding parties,” Ironwood said. “I was thinking of inviting Team JNPR on one in the next few days.”

_ Nikos, huh? _ Ozpin thought.  _ Everything that’s going on and he’s worrying about PR. _

"Priorities, Ironwood," Ozpin said.

"Right now, more than ever, we need to be seen as strong."

“Is that why you convinced the Vale council to open up a prison for Faunus suspects? It won't solve anything."

"All means to an end, Oz." Ironwood lifted his chin. "You're not doing so well my friend, but don't worry. My raids are getting results. We are cracking down on Faunus in your territory and your settlements, a problem I told you to deal with for years, and now I'm paying the price too. But _ I _ will save us."

Ironwood left the office shortly after that. Ozpin rested his chin against his hands. The raids were only announced for show. To assure Vale and its council that he and Ironwood had some control over the situation. But what if Ironwood took them too far? What if he already had?

Ozpin was becoming wary of discovering what the “ends” that James so fondly spoke of were.

 

* * *

 

Yang’s motorcycle rolled to a stop at the front gate to Snowdale. The morning sun was covered behind a half overcast sky. The settlement had been a pain to find, fitting for the person Yang was tracking down. She’d driven without rest through the night once she finally found a road. She was tired, hungry and cold. But it didn’t matter. The dirt road crunched under Yang’s boots as she walked up and knocked on the gate.

A Faunus guard poked his head over the wall and looked down at her. “What are you doing around these parts?” he asked.

“Can you open up?” Yang said.

“Not unless you state your business.”

“I’m looking for Raven Branwen,” Yang said.

“Well, I can’t help you there,” the guard said. He turned to look at someone down on the other side of the wall. “You know any Branwen?”

“Can’t say I know a Branwen,” a voice called up from inside the walls.

“See? No Branwen’s from these parts,” the guard called back down to Yang.

Yang scowled. She didn’t have time for this. “How’s this then? The Bandit.”

The guard shook his head. “Haven’t had any bandit’s ‘round here for a couple years at least.” He turned around and looked to the guy in the settlement behind him. “We haven’t seen any bandit’s around, have we?”

“Chased ‘em off at least three years ago I think.”

“See,” the guard called back down. “No bandits here.”

Yang’s eyes flared as her Aura kicked on. She growled and grabbed the motorcycle she’d brought all this way and threw it over the wall, barely missing the guard as it spun over itself through the air and from the following scream, landing close to the voice on the other side. She channeled power into her legs and jumped up to the top of the wall, face-to-face with the Faunus, grabbed him by the collar and held him up. She glared at him with bright burning red eyes and gritted teeth as he tried to squirm away.

“Tell her, her daughter’s here to see her.”

 

* * *

 

Raven had struggled with meditation for years, it was something she wished to overcome, and today she wasn't making any progress. Her table was pushed up to the wall, and she was sitting on her knees on a rolled out mat in the center of her room.

Summer's kid brought a duffle bags worth of past memories she'd rather ignore. In a few days, Raven needed to go back to Khan, and she didn't want to be in this state when she faced her commander again.

Raven inhaled. The distraction was annoying, but she might as well embrace it for a moment and let it play itself out to get it over with.

  
  


_ It was gaudy. _

_ From the statues and fountains to the carefully measured and trimmed hedges, Raven couldn’t figure out why an academy that trained grizzled warriors needed to look like a monument to Vale’s glory. Luckily, the campus was just as easy to navigate as it was fancy, and without trouble, she found the dorms where she and Qrow would be staying with their other two teammates for the next few years. She and Qrow never went to a Combat School. They were trained at the edge of the settlements and had been through enough that they both easily passed the Academy's entrance exams. It was pretty simple if you already had years of experience fighting off Grimm hordes. _

_ As she entered her dorm room with her duffle bag slung over her shoulder, the first thing she noticed was that it wasn’t as spartan as she expected a Hunter Academy to be. Leisure was something she was going to have to get used to. The second thing she noticed as the girl laying on one of the four beds. She had short dark hair, a white cloak and was still wearing her boots on the mattress. _

_ “Ahem,” Raven grunted. _

_ “Wha?” The girl sat up. Drool dripped down the side of her chin, and she wiped it off with her cloak. “What?” _

_ Raven pointed to herself. “Roommate.” _

_ “Oh!” The girl sprang up and landed next to the bed. “You’re one of the twins, right?” _

_ “Yeah,” Raven said. She dropped her bag on one of the other beds on the other side of the room. “I’m Raven. Qrow’s around… somewhere.” Probably chasing after some other freshmen. Hopefully, he’d last a day before he was run off campus. _

_ “Cool. Name’s Summer,” the girl introduced herself. “I’ve already met the other guy this morning. “I think his name was Tai. Kinda cute.” _

_ “Good for him,” Raven said. _

_ “Whoa!” Summer said. “Are your eyes red?” _

_ Raven rolled them. She and her brother had gotten that a lot, so she started to respond like she always did. “And yours are… silver?” She’d never seen that color before. The exposure to Dust for the last couple centuries had made some mutations to human hair and eye colors, her eyes were an obvious example, but she’d never seen silver before. They were kinda pretty. _

_ “Yeah, cool huh?” Summer brushed her hair back to let Raven get a better look at them. _

_ Raven cleared her throat and snapped out of it. Just because she was surrounded by Kingdom-sheltered children, didn’t mean that she had to act like them. “Yeah.” _

_ Summer held out her hand. “Welcome to Beacon.” _

_ Raven looked down at it. She reached out and shook Summer’s hand with a smile. “Thanks.” _

  
  


“Bandit?”

Raven opened her eyes. Fennec had entered her room behind her and interrupted her failed meditation. He was hesitating in whatever his report was, which combined with the memories just irritated her.

“Sorry to bother you at this time, but…”

“Spit it out, Fennec,” Raven said.

“Alright,” he said. “How best to say this? Your daughter is outside.”

 

* * *

 

Yang looked up once she heard the front door of the building open. Raven emerged onto the porch which creaked as she stepped forward and glared down at Yang standing in the street. Yang inhaled through her nose, taking in the cold air and the dirt smell from the rough settlement she'd hunted her down to. A gust of wind blew through the street, her hair and jacket flapped in the breeze, but she refused to shiver because of the temperature, even with the cold metal of her gauntlets stinging her forearms.

Now that they were finally facing off, Raven looked older than Yang imagined. Which made sense, the only thing she had to go on was old photos from Raven’s twenties. Yang had never thought about it before, but she and Raven still shared the same haircut. A similarity that only pissed Yang off even more.

“Yang,” Raven finally spoke. “So after all this time… you just had to show up  _ now _ .”

“I’ve been searching for you,” Yang said, throwing a glare right back at her.

“And you found me… so what do you want?”

“Answers.”

“For what?” Raven started to pace back and forth along the porch.

“Seventeen years ago you abandoned the greatest woman in the world,” Yang said.

“Doesn’t seem like something  _ you _ would be pissed about.”

Yang ignored her. “Why?”

Raven waved her off. “If I’m doing my math right, you’re no longer a child, but you’re still a spoiled brat, you know that, Yang Branwen?”

“Xiao Long.”

Raven paused her pacing and looked at her daughter. “Your mom and I had some disagreements, so we split up. It’s a boring story. Satisfied?”

“Not good enough!” Yang said through gritted teeth.

Raven sighed. She walked down the steps to Yang’s level. “What do you want from me, Yang?”

Yang clenched her fists. Here she finally was, face-to-face with this woman, and she had nothing prepared. All this time, she worried about tracking her down, she never put too much thought into what she would actually say to her. Yang glared at her mother, her eyes flashed red for a moment. “For you to give me one good reason why I shouldn’t--”

The bell on the door of the ice cream shop next door rang as it opened; the soft ring interrupting the confrontation.

“He said that to their faces?!”

Two young women walked out of the shop holding ice cream cones. The silent one nodded at the girl in the red cloak’s question.

Yang’s eyes widened. 

Ruby laughed at Neo’s story and took a bite out of her ice cream. “What an idiot.” They turned towards the crowd in the street. “Oh hey, Yang,” Ruby said smiling before turning back to Neo. “So when he…”

Ruby’s eyes went wide. She quickly turned back and stared at Yang.

“Ruby?!” Yang’s voice cracked.

“What are  _ YOU _ doing here?!” Ruby dropped the ice cream cone, Neo looked down at it hit the boardwalk and frowned.

_ She’s alright! _ Yang thought. She smiled, but then finally processed who Ruby was standing next to. “What is  _ SHE  _ doing here?!”

Neo waved, her mouth full of ice cream.

“Well,” Ruby said, “I kinda have been… working for her?”

Yang turned back to Raven. “What the hell did you do?!”

Ruby rushed between them. “No! Nothing malevolent. It’s just a crazy weird coincidence.”

_ What the hell?  _ Yang thought.  _ The universe is messing with me. There’s no other explanation.  _ Yang’s breathing steadied. Ruby was here. She was safe. _ But I… I made my choice. _ And she was done with distractions.

“Yang,” Ruby said. “I… Look, about Beacon. I--”

“I already made my choice,” Yang said.

Ruby blinked in confusion. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“Branwen!” Yang’s gauntlets transformed out.

“Whoa!” Ruby tried to hold Yang back, but Yang pushed her off.

Raven smirked at her daughter marching towards her. “Do you really think you can--” 

She was interrupted by a punch to the jaw. 

Raven grunted but immediately hit Yang back. Yang stepped back but faster than she could keep track of her, Raven was behind her and put Yang in a headlock. Yang swung her gauntlet back, hitting Raven across the head and knocking her out of the hold.

Raven wiped some blood from her cut lip. “Okay,” she said standing up straight. “So this is how you want this to go?”

Yang slammed her fists together. “There’s more where that came from if you wanna activate your Aura.”

Raven laughed. “You first punk.”

Yang growled and ran towards Raven, her fist pulled back for a punch. Raven readied herself and threw a punch both of them hitting each other in the face simultaneously.

Ruby looked on at the fight in disbelief. Where they stupid? What would this accomplish? She looked at some of the Faunus in the crowd behind her, who were all standing there silently watching the familial clash. “None of you are going to help me break this up?”

“Look, kid,” the guard from the gate said. “Why wouldn’t I want to watch two humans kick the shit out of each other. You can’t pay for this type of drama.”

A loud crack went out from Raven headbutting Yang. The audience “Ooooh”-ed.

Ruby groaned and slapped her forehead.

Neo finished the top of her ice cream and nibbled on the sugar cone. Roman finally showed up to investigate the commotion and walked up to Neo and looked between her and the fist fight. “What the hell did I miss?”

Neo signed a recap of what had happened the last few minutes.

“Wait, I was getting Junior those photos for  _ her? _ ” Roman said. “Damn. Small world.”

Ruby pulled her hair and screamed.  _ Am I the only one who’s not indifferent to this?!!! _

Yang managed to wrestle Raven to the ground and pinned her down beneath her. Raven started to push Yang off, but Yang punched her in the face, sending the back of Raven’s head slamming against the dirt road. She grabbed Raven by the collar and shook her.

“Why?!”

“Ow,” Raven groaned.

“You left us! You left us to…”

Yang had a thousand things to say to her mother. A thousand things to scream in her face. A thousand things that were never meant for Raven.

Yang loosened her hold, and stared down at the stranger beneath her.

“You’re not Summer," Yang said.  


Raven glared up at the young woman who had beaten her. “I’m not.”

Yang choked down a gasp.  _ So that’s what this is all about, _ she thought. The last ten years really had been for nothing. Yang let go of Raven, rolled off her and sat down on the dirt road.

Raven coughed and rubbed her head before sitting up herself. By now the crowd had left from disinterest or to give the pair some privacy, leaving only the two Faunus guards, Neo, Roman, and Ruby left looking at the two beat up women.

“Yang…” Ruby said. She reached a hand out towards her sister.

A loud gust of wind and engines blew right overhead. Everyone looked up as a small airship flew over the settlement and started to circle back to the center of Snowdale.

The guard groaned. “Oh, what now?”

The ship landed in the middle of Main Street next to the small crowd. Everyone waited anxiously as the engines whirred down to see who had shown up out of the blue this time.

On the side of the ship, the door’s latch turned before it slid open, revealing...

“I would recognize that cloak anywhere!”

“Weiss?!” Ruby screamed.

“What the hell?” Raven grumbled.

Weiss and Blake climbed out of the ship and started walking towards Ruby and co.

“Blake?!!!” Ruby screamed in a louder and squeakier pitch. “Wait, what are you two doing together? How did you find me?”

While Ruby was losing it, Roman and Neo looked on at the spectacle, wolfing down a bag of popcorn.

Weiss stormed up to Ruby until she was in her partner’s face. “Screw you, Ruby!” she yelled. She looked down to see Yang sitting on the ground nearby. “Oh, Yang’s here too. Good. Screw you too, Yang!”

Yang glanced her in her direction but didn’t react.

Blake tapped Weiss on the shoulder and nodded down to the other side of Yang. They both looked over at Raven glaring up at them from their feet. Then they looked between Raven and Yang. Same face. Same hair-ish. They then slowly turned and looked at Neo and Roman watching on. Roman waved while Neo picked a popcorn kernel out of her teeth.

Weiss grimaced and looked at Ruby.

Ruby smiled back awkwardly.

Weiss turned back to Blake. “Okay,” she said. “You want to handle this one? Because even with the whole school invading terrorist baggage, your situation was a lot less messy than whatever this is.”


	27. A Comforting Presence

“What the hell were the two of you thinking?!” Weiss stomped her foot and pointed at the two sisters sitting on the bed in front of her.

Ruby flinched and rubbed her hands together, but Yang only leaned back and looked at the corner of the room, not out of shame, but because she wanted Weiss’s rant to be over with already. She avoided looking at Blake who was leaning against the window. The four had gone to the safe house apartment Ruby was staying in for some much needed catching up on how everyone had ended up in the same settlement.

Weiss continued while waving her Scroll around, “And now we’re all out here in the middle of nowhere because you two can’t answer your phone!” She tapped her Scroll against Ruby’s forehead. “Dolt!”

Yang folded her arms. “I didn’t ask you to follow me. And I wasn’t the one who went off to play revolutionary,” she said, gesturing at Blake.

Blake lifted her chin. “I don’t see you at Atlas headquarters right now trying to get the school back, do I?”

“At least I’m not the one chumming it up with terrorists.” Yang pointed at Ruby. “You’re asking to get locked away forever!”

“Says my sister who just tried to kill her mom in the middle of a crowded street!”

“It was personal.”

“So was the chumming!” Ruby said. “You--it turns out--didn’t even look for me. I mean, Jeez, Yang. Thanks for that.”

“We really doing this?” Yang said.

“Why the hell not?” Blake mumbled.

“What the hell?” Ruby said, ignoring Blake. “So you decided to leave on a whim to go find Raven while I was missing, probably dead, and Weiss needed you?”

“Pot, meet kettle,” Weiss said. “While you two were off on your spirit journey’s, I actually got shit done.”

Yang frowned. “Like what?”

“Excuse me?” Weiss said. “I betrayed my country!”

“OK, we’ve all betrayed our countries at this point,” Blake said.

“Oh don’t you start now,” Weiss said.

“Fuck this.” Yang stood up and slammed open the door to the apartment as she stormed off.

“Yang!” Blake scratched her head and chased after her, leaving Weiss and Ruby alone in the apartment.

Weiss exhaled and slumped her head down as she sat on the bed next to Ruby. “God damn it.”

Ruby pulled her hand through her hair as she glanced back and forth between Weiss and the ground before looking at the door to the room. She leaned forward and looked over at Weiss. “You alright?”

“I messed that up.” Weiss hit herself in the forehead and looked down at her lap. “I was just expecting it to be easier with you guys than it was with Blake, and well… here we are.”

Ruby nodded. “Don’t blame yourself. I was the one who lost it at Yang. I was just surprised to see you all today, and I wanted a little more time to plan how I was going to handle this after everything that’s happened. Sorry.”

Weiss glanced over. “You were coming back?”

“Yeah, I… I’m sorry, Weiss. I shouldn’t have left you. After Beacon, I… Everything was wrong. I’m not going to pretend like that's an excuse, but I needed some time.”

Weiss nodded. “I get that. The last week has helped me figure some important stuff out.” She looked up and smirked. “Remember how pissed I was that you got teamed up with me when school started?”

“Yeah?”

“The first time I met you three, my first thought was, ‘oh boy, I’m going to have to put up with these idiots for years.’ I was sure you would put me through hell.” Weiss chuckled.

“Oh…”

"And you know what? In a lot of ways, I was completely right. You three dragged me through more shenanigans than I ever wanted to be a part of. My life has been thoroughly wrecked because of you, Ruby Rose."

“Um… You're welcome?” Ruby laughed nervously. “Is that the right answer?”

“Uhuh,” Weiss said. “I think it took me losing you guys to realize that you all are my family. I need to work on my temper, among other things, but I want to fix this.”

Ruby sat up.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Weiss said. “I’m pissed at you--will be for a while-- but we’re going to get through this because… you’re my best friend.”

Ruby squeaked as Weiss hugged her, holding her tight like she’d never let her go again.

“Hey, Ruby?”

“Yeah?”

“RWBY’s the best team. Always has been… always will be. Isn’t that right?”

Tears filled Ruby’s eyes.

“Yeah,” she choked out and hugged Weiss back.

 

* * *

 

The dumbbells dropped against the gym floor with a metallic thud, and Pyrrha sat down on the bench. She pulled her hair back as she caught her breath and hydrated. The sweat made her clothes stick to her, but she still had a lot more to do before she could shower and change. The temporary dorm’s training equipment was basic and barely acceptable by her usual standards, but she knew that right now she couldn't be picky. She’d would make do, no matter the situation.

Jaune walked through the doorway and looked around the small room until he spotted Pyrrha. He waved casually and walked up to her. “I haven’t seen you all morning.”

“Been busy,” Pyrrha said while stretching her sore muscles. “Sorry.”

“No, you’re good.” Jaune leaned against the wall next to Pyrrha and put a hand on the back of his neck. “How are you holding up?”

Pyrrha shrugged. “As good as I can be.” His concern was cute, it was a big part of why she liked him. But any ideas of pursuing that were snuffed out by the breach and Beacon’s fall. There was too much to do now.

“I talked to General Ironwood earlier,” Jaune said. “That mission he talked to us about is going through. We’re heading out on a raid soon.”

“Good,” Pyrrha said standing up and making her way to the treadmill. “Any word from Weiss?”

“No,” Jaune shook his head. “Ozpin and Ironwood are pretending like she and Yang didn’t disappear.” He put his hands in his pockets and frowned. “Something’s going on, and whatever it is, it sucks.”

Pyrrha tied her shoelaces. “Their whole team has disappeared now,” she said. “First to go was Blake, and that’s probably a good indication to where they’ve all gone.”

“I don’t believe Ruby would betray us like that,” Jaune sighed. “I just wish I knew if she was okay or not.”

Jaune left to tell the rest of their team the news from Ironwood, and Pyrrha continued her workout and started running at max speed on the treadmill.

Her time had come. The raids against the White Fang would be her first real mission. Pyrrha had won tournaments and excelled in her educational career, but now she was finally going into the field. Younger than planned, but still prepared and she was ready. As sad as it made her, there was no more time for distractions. No more time for a teen crush. No more pretending to be a child. There wasn’t any time for that in a Hunter’s life.

Pyrrha came to Beacon because of her personal hero, Summer Rose, had been trained there. In her mind, Summer was the perfect Hunter. She was brave, willing to take missions other’s wouldn’t and run into danger for a Grimm hunt. She was a legend, defined the spear combat style and recordings of her tournament victories practically rewrote textbooks . She was a figure that any Hunter could look up to, and Pyrrha devoted herself to becoming skilled like her.

And, of course, like any legendary Hunter, Summer died for the cause.

 

“Again!”

Pyrrha swung the staff from the starting position. Even at nine years old, she was practicing more advanced stances. She performed these motions every day. Her instructor was walking around her at the edge of the training patio in the upper levels of Mistral, carefully watching every movement Pyrrha made.

Pyrrha’s next swing had a weak landing.

“Again.”

Pyrrha lowered her head and started the set from the beginning. She got two motions into the set when--

“Again.”

_What did I do this time?_ Pyrrha thought. She hesitated to start the next step.

“Again!”

Pyrrha repeated the motions.

Later that month, one of her instructor’s old students died. Pyrrha was taken to watch the procession in the rain. She was dwarfed by the two adults in black ponchos to her sides; her legs were shivering as she watched the coffin pass by.

Inside the funeral hall, the casket was open for the ceremony, a rarity for Hunter funerals. Her instructor talked in hushed tones to other adults, some concerned over the rising Hunter death rate and Grimm levels in the settlements outside of Mistral.

No one noticed Pyrrha staring at the body. The man’s face, dressed up to look peaceful, came across as morbid, his sunken cheeks and pale skin a reminder of the fate of all Hunters.

_Oh,_ Pyrrha realized. Her eyes lowered. _So this is what will happen to me._

A simple fact of being a Hunter had been established, and she knew that it would remain with her until one day, her trainers and peers stood over her lifeless body torn apart by Grimm, which would ultimately be just another reminder of the cycle.

This was the life of a Hunter. And it was this end that she would fight for until her last breath.

 

* * *

 

Blake banged on the wooden door with her fist.

“Yang!” she yelled. She looked at the top of the door standing in her way and sighed before knocking again.

After Yang stormed off, Blake found out that she had bought a room for a night in the nearby inn to brood in.

“Yang!” Blake leaned her head against the doorframe. “I’m sorry, okay?”

The door lock clicked, and Yang opened the door.

“Finally…” Blake said and barged into the room.

Yang turned to face Blake and folded her arms. “So what do you want?”

“Yang,” Blake said and rubbed the back of her head, subtly avoiding eye-contact with Yang. “I know I’m a mess, and that’s not going to change anytime soon, but Weiss is trying to fix this. And a lot of this is my fault, so I’m helping so please, let’s just talk.”

Yang raised an eyebrow. “Wow. Did you write that out before trying to break the door down?”

“Yang…” Blake’s arms dropped.

“You left me!” Yang said as she took a step towards Blake. “You left _her!_ ” She pointed in the direction of Ruby’s safehouse. “And the worst part is, you _knew_. You fucking knew. I told you about Raven and Summer.” Yang reached out like she was going to grab Blake by the shirt but pulled back and gritted her teeth. “You knew all those things about me, more than I’ve told anyone, and you still left!”

Blake swallowed with a clenched jaw. She’d done this. No pointless self-guilt this time, it was her fault. Yang’s anxiousness a couple months ago, her jumpiness the day after the breach. It was nothing compared to this. Those were only cracks in the facade harmlessly leaking out, but here she was now, failing to even keep back tears.

Yang glared down at Blake with red eyes. “And you want to just walk everything back like nothing ever happened?”

“Yang, I--” Blake reached forward.

Yang hit Blake’s hand away. “Get out.”

“Yang…”

“ _GET OUT!_ ”

Blake left the inn. She walked out of the building and sat down on the front steps. The shadow of a truck passed her by as she leaned down as her ears lay flat against her hair.

_Well, that went about as bad as it could have,_ Blake thought. She couldn’t reach Yang, and she was too much of a coward to go back and talk to Ruby alone. She didn’t know what to say yet.

Blake put her face in her hand. She didn’t know how to stop it. She was making the same mistake she did with Ilia. Nothing had changed.

A shadow paused in front of her and Blake looked up. One of the fox Faunus that seemed to work for Yang’s mom was standing in front of her.

He looked at her through his hood and said, “The Bandit would like to see you.”

 

Raven handed Blake a ceramic teacup as they sat across from each other. Blake thanked her and sipped at the drink.

This was weird. She’d heard plenty about The Bandit, but finding out that she was her partner’s mom was weird. Even drinking tea with someone as infamous as her was weird.

“How is the Beacon base?” Raven asked. “Fennec says that you worked for Adam and were stationed there until yesterday.”

Blake sat up straight. She didn’t expect this meeting to be a report, but it was welcome after all the personal drama she’d been drowning in all day. “The operation went well, and defenses are established. We’re holding it.” Blake went on to explain how they set up Atlas weaponry and their own resources to transform the academy into a proper fortress.

“Looks like Taurus has a handle on things. Good.” Raven sipped her tea. “So you were on Ruby and Yang’s team at Beacon?”

“Yeah,” Blake nodded and turned her yunomi cup around in her hands.

“How were they?” Raven said. “You know, as students?”

“They were great,” Blake shrugged. “Tough. Some of the school’s best, honestly. Our team was arguably the best out of the first years because of those two.”

Raven nodded. “I don’t know if I should be sad or proud,” she laughed to herself. “So you knew Yang and Ruby well?”

“Yeah, you could say that. We had a falling out right after the breach and I unofficially broke up with her before the Beacon takeover. I caused a mess, but now I’m trying to help fix things.”

“Wait… broke up?” Raven raised an eyebrow. “Which one?”

“Um…” Blake swallowed. “Ruby.”

Raven looked Blake up and down, who didn’t appreciate the criticism, but Raven shrugged and said, “Not that I care…”

Blake laughed nervously. Maybe this is what it would be like to meet a girlfriend’s parents. Not that she was, or even would be for a long time after this.

“Seeing Yang again after all this time is strange,” Raven said. “It’s like looking in a mirror to when I was younger and angrier.” Raven poured herself some more tea. “I hate it.”

“Have you talked to her since this morning?”

“It’s best for me to avoid her and wait for her to leave,” Raven said. “I abandoned her a long time ago, and I have no right to talk to her now.”

_That’s how I felt about Ilia,_ Blake thought. _And Adam. And Yang. And Ruby. Oh boy…_

Blake leaned against the table. “So how did a Hunter get mixed up in the White Fang in the first place?”

“When I joined the Hunters it was purely mercenary. My brother and I didn’t care about saving people, but we had the talent. Plus we wanted to play it straight after we got into some trouble out in the settlements. After we graduated… I guess Summer made me care about bigger stuff somewhere along the way, and when I saw how the Kingdoms treated Hunters and Faunus, I couldn’t help them anymore.”

“And Summer didn’t leave with you?”

“No.” Raven stared at the side of the room. “We disagreed on what was the best way to help people. I left her and Yang, and a little while later I ended up helping the White Fang on a couple jobs. Just protecting a Faunus caravan or a rally from the shadows. Stuff like that. I met Khan who was building up influence in the White Fang, and she offered me a role in some less than legal activities. Eventually, she trusted me enough to keep me around when she took over and we ended up keeping my identity anonymous so nothing bad could be traced back to Yang and Ruby.”

Blake nodded. After everything she’d heard about The Bandit, it turned out her motivations were a lot nobler than her reputation made her out to be.

Raven glanced at Blake suspiciously, like she guessed Blake’s thought process and didn’t care for it. “Why did _you_ guys split?”

“Ruby and I, or the team?”

“Both.”

Blake sighed and leaned both her arms on the table. “I went back to the White Fang, and with all the craziness at Beacon, one thing led to another, and everything fell apart. I missed a lot of it once I left, honestly.”

“So rather than communicate with your partner, both partners, or try to get them to understand you, you just ran away,” Raven said. She didn't say it with judgment or spite. It was simply an observation.

That didn’t mean that Blake had to like it though. “You don't know what I’ve been through, and I’m trying to make up for my mistakes. I just… don’t know how.”

“Yeah. I guess I wouldn’t know either.”

Blake looked across the table at the woman in front of her. How did Raven put it earlier? It was like looking in a mirror--just instead it was someone who never corrected the mistakes that Blake wanted to fix.

Raven probably knew Blake more than either was willing to admit.

“Just some advice,” Raven said. “Don’t throw your family away.” She finished her cup of tea. “It’s too late for me, but not for you, kid.”

As far as Blake knew, the only thing holding her back was herself. She thought back to all the times that Ruby helped her. So many times that Ruby expressed herself by her actions. The rescue at the docks, the dance by the fountain, the kiss on the bridge, even their duel at Beacon. Blake was so hung up on what to say, that she never considered that maybe, Ruby didn't need her to say much at all. And it wasn’t like she had anything to lose.

Blake stood up. “That’s not bad advice,” she said. She turned and headed for the door.

Raven turned her head to hide a faint smile behind her dark hair.

Blake turned and faced Raven. “You’re wrong though.”

Raven leaned back and frowned. “About what?”

"It's not too late."

Blake left the room, leaving Raven sitting alone in a painfully empty apartment.

 

* * *

 

Yang was on her second drink and god she hated it. She couldn’t stand holding herself up in her room for another second, so once it was dark outside and it seemed like the appropriate time to go drinking, she made her way to the bar near the inn. Why anyone drank this shit was beyond her. The plan was simple, lie to the barkeep to get a drink, but then Yang remembered that she turned eighteen over a month ago, which made the whole enterprise feel less cool. She wanted to rebel, but instead, she was really just a mess.

Yang laughed to herself. _I’m just fucking up the same way Dad used to, and Qrow does now,_ she thought. _I guess I really am an adult._

The door to the bar opened, and the two ruffians strolled into the bar. Roman and Neo sat down a couple stools down from Yang at the bar.

“Can I and my associate get a drink, my good sir,” Roman said. He played the counter like some bongo drums, and Neo brushed some hair out of her face. He looked down the bar at Yang. “Aren’t you a little young to be in a bar?” Roman said.

“Fuck you,” Yang said and took another drink. Oh god, it was even worse after it got warm.

Neo signed something back at her, but Yang didn’t care enough to try and deduce what it was.

The drinks arrived; Roman ignored the barkeep, but Neo signed thank you. Between drinks, they signed back and forth privately. Yang didn’t understand a word, but the occasional glance her way pissed her off.

“Hey,” Yang said. “Ice cream girl!”

Neo waved.

"What are you two of all people so happy about?"

Neo pulled out her Scroll. _"Money."_

Yang grumbled and rested her head on the bar. "This sucks."

Roman glanced over. "Is she going to be alright?"

Yang sighed. She turned her head and looked over at them. “From what I’ve heard, you guys are now buddies with my sister.”

Neo nodded.

“Where is she?” Yang pouted.

“Well, Red’s been hanging out with the Schnee all day because she’s still embarrassed about facing you or cat girl,” Roman said, “and Ice Queen hates us, so we haven’t seen her much since this morning.”

Yang laughed. _I guess she has more important things to worry about than me._

“Oh?” Roman said. “Not going to scream at us for leading your sister astray. Not going to come to the defense of your imouto?”

“I don't deserve to defend her,” Yang said and looked up at the glass in front of her. She really didn’t want to finish this drink. “You know why I really became a Hunter?”

Neo shrugged and Roman didn’t even look like he was listening.

“Just to work out my anger. I felt so powerless as a kid: the Grimm attack and my mom dying and all. I thought I could get that back by force.” Yang buried her face in the bar counter. “Now look at me.”

_“From what I heard, now you’re taking it out on your partner,”_ Neo typed.

“I honestly don’t even care that Blake left us or was part of the White Fang anymore,” Yang said. “The problem is me. I’m just as bad as Raven this whole time.”

_“Think about it though,”_ Neo typed. _“Call it fate, but even in a place like this, they all managed to track you down.”_

Yang glanced up to see Neo smiling at her.

_“If those idiots aren't giving up on you, then maybe you shouldn't either.”_

Neo held out her glass.

It didn’t help much, but she might as well forget and just try to enjoy her strange new drinking companions. Yang smirked and clanked her glass against Neo’s and drank the rest of it down.

 

* * *

 

From the roof of the apartment building where Ruby, Roman and Neo were staying, Ruby could see the whole settlement; even the surrounding forests and hills outside the walls. Ruby shivered from a sudden gust of evening wind and rubbed the goose bumps over her arms, but she needed a moment to herself. Weiss planning on forgiving her was something she didn’t expect when she woke up this morning, or any morning really, but while she was making some living arrangements downstairs, Ruby slipped away for a second to the dark rooftop.

The door to the roof opened behind Ruby, and a beam of light covered her. Ruby turned around; Blake was standing in the doorway, a dark shadow illuminated by the yellow electrical light down the stairwell.

“Can I come in?” Blake asked and then scrunched her face. “I mean… you get it.”

Ruby smiled sadly and beckoned her head back at Blake.

Blake closed the door behind her and walked across the roof, her boots clicked against the concrete, every step like a commitment. She stood a step behind Ruby and hesitated, took a breath, and sat down on the roof next to Ruby.

Ruby looked over and saw Blake rubbing her hands together. It felt like so much more than a week since she’d last seen her. It wasn’t the best last impression, with the whole trying to cut off her head with Crescent Rose thing. Best to probably not bring that up, honestly.

“I like the no bow look,” Ruby said.

Blake smiled, “Me too.”

No moon fragments had risen over the mountains, making the settlement the only source of light for as far as Ruby could see. After a moment the sound of singing from the saloon a street or two away rose up and mixed into the wind before it faded away just as quickly as it had appeared.

After another breath of wind, Blake finally said, “I’m sorry. I should have talked to you before I ran away.”

“You did,” Ruby said. “I should have listened.”

Blake sighed and hung her head back. “Well… I’m now two for two for bad breakups.”

“Yeah,” Ruby laughed. “Same here.” She looked out into the dark forest below the walls of the city, hiding whatever was out there. “Hey, Blake?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m scared,” Ruby said. “I’m scared about facing you. Yang too… I’m scared about what I’m going to do with my life. For the first time, I don't know where this is going.”

A pause fell between the two young women. Ruby looked down and gripped her wrist as her cloak flapped in the wind behind her.

"We'll be there for you," said Blake. "Every step of the way."

Ruby looked out over the town, out into the forest, out towards the unknown. Even with all that facing her, Blake was by her side, and that was the only thing she needed right now.

Ruby smiled. "Thank you."

 

* * *

 

The sunlight across Yang’s eyelids hurt. Scratch that. _Everything_ hurt. It was morning already, and she was back in bed at her room at the inn. Yang had never blacked out while drinking before, and she wasn’t planning on doing that again any time soon.

_Goddamnit, how pathetic am I?_ Yang sighed and put a hand against her forehead as she pulled the blanket off of her. _Wait, why am I naked?_

A yawn snapped her out of her foggy thoughts, but it wasn’t from Yang herself. Yang turned to the shifting pile of blankets next to her.

A pair of arms pulled the blankets down, revealing a woman with ruffled multicolored hair who was scratching her scalp. She squinted at the light piercing through the curtains and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.

Neo looked up at the ceiling before she turned and looked at Yang sitting up above her.

Neo froze.

She double checked the strange room she was in, pushed herself onto her elbows and looked up at Yang; then down at herself and her similar lack of clothing. Then she looked back up at Yang and put together what had happened since her last memory at the bar last night.

Yang’s eyes widened as she also realized the situation she’d woken up to.

Neo frantically dug through the sheets until she found her Scroll and typed a message as quickly as she could move her fingers and held it up to Yang’s face:

_“You single?”_


	28. Reconciliation

The dirt and leaves crunched in Yang’s fist under her as she clawed at the ground before taking off full sprint at the Ursa. Three shotgun punches to its chest and then a shotgun uppercut shattered the Grimm’s skull and was enough to finish off the monster. It groaned as it fell to the ground on its back with a crash.

Yang stood over the corpse as it started to billow into black smoke and gasped for breath. The workout had made her immune to the biting cold winter morning in the forest outside of Snowdale. She’d left her room at the inn to clear her head and avoid a conversation she didn't want to have with a cute girl she somehow managed to seduce while in a drunken stupor.

_ Wait… when did she get cute?  _ Yang thought.  _...Shit. _

The overcast morning skies and bare trees drained the last of the color out of the forest, casting everything from the bark, leaves, and dirt in a uniform grey shadow around her. It reminded her of another overcast day, one when she dragged Ruby through the forest in a red wagon into a Grimm ambush.

Behind several trees surrounding Yang, five more Grimm crept out from their hiding places and faced her. One’s jaw hung open as a low guttural growl filled the quiet forest as an offense to Yang’s intrusion.

Yang cracked her knuckles and started running toward the closest Beowolf. She swung wide at it, it ducked out of the path of her swing, but her punch shattered a nearby tree and wood shrapnel flew forward and impaled the Grimm like a pincushion. Yang grabbed its head as it reeled back screaming, hit it against her knee before she shotgun blasted its throat. Ripping one of its bone spikes off its back, Yang impaled another Grimm through the ribs and punched the spike, hammering through the Grimm's body like a nail, finishing it.

A gunshot echoed through the forest.

Yang jerked around to see a nearby Grimm, closer than she thought it was, fall down with its skull exploded by a high caliber round.

Ruby walked through the trees holding her Crescent Rose in rifle form, the heat from the barrel visible in the cold air. Her slow walk crunched the leaves under her feet as she approached her sister.

“You’re not watching your back!” Ruby called out.

Yang grumbled. She didn’t need this, she thought as she attacked the next Grimm. She punched it a dozen times before a massive shotgun punch slid it back several yards. The Grimm grunted in pain, but reared up and roared down at Yang.

A red blur shot past Yang and the Grimm. The monster's head shot up, decapitated, into the air and hit a pile of leaves. Ruby slid to a stop and turned Crescent Rose around in its full form. "Sloppy!"

“Shut up!” Yang yelled. She dodged another Grimm charging her from behind, snatched it into a headlock and then snapped its neck. It fell to the ground, and Yang shotgun blasted it in the back of the head just in case.

The echo of the last gunshot reverberated through the forest. A gust of wind picked up some grey leaves near Yang’s feet and blew them past Ruby’s flowing tattered cloak. The two sisters stood facing each other, with the dead Grimm around them slowly disintegrating into the breeze.

Yang laughed to herself at the sight of Ruby. In only a week, she looked so much older and experienced than the girl she'd left behind in Vale. The new combat outfit and her weapon and cloak being battle damaged were just surface changes. Even if Ruby hadn't noticed when she looked in a mirror, her expression had hardened. It was hard even imagining the helpless child trapped in a red wagon anymore.

A few minutes later, Yang and Ruby sat on a log by the side of the forest road. Ruby handed Yang her water bottle. Yang looked at it for a moment before thanking her and drank half of it down.

“So what do you want?” Yang asked while wiping water from the edge of her mouth.

“To talk.”

“If this is about--”

“No,” Ruby said. “This is different.”

Yang turned to Ruby. “Then what?”

Ruby lifted her head and refused to break eye contact with Yang. “I want to talk about Mom.”

Yang lowered her head. “Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“OK, what do you want to know?”

“A lot, but what was it like after she died?”

Yang sighed and leaned back, looking at the bare branches above them.

"Mom's death..." Yang said, "It hit us bad. Okay? It hit Dad pretty hard mostly. Maybe I'm making excuses, but, yeah, he became an alcoholic for a while. Yelled at me a lot. He tried not to do it when you were around. I think he had a hard time even thinking about me as a daughter for a while, despite the biological connection. I was Raven's kid, not his."

It was all coming out now. After all this time, even after all the healing, she couldn't unsee her father screaming in her face that she didn't belong there. That she wasn't  _ his _ daughter. The words of a grieving addict long recovered. She knew that, but they still hurt. Yang had buried all this down and never admitted it to anyone, and now she was finally pouring it out to her kid sister. The one person she didn't want to be burdened by all this.

“You remember the Grimm attack don’t you?” Yang said.

“Yeah,” Ruby said. “Hard to forget that.”

“Of course you do,” Yang said. “Qrow’s why you’re a Hunter after all.” Yang gripped her wrist and stared at the edge of the road by the log.

“When Qrow saved us and dragged us home, the first thing that happened was he punched Dad right in the face." Yang mimicked the swing and smirked. "Uncle Qrow chewed him out but stopped halfway through his rant because he realized that anything he could say wouldn't compare to what Dad was thinking about himself.

"The Grimm attack snapped him out of it. He got help, he focused on teaching, acted like a real father. He stepped up, I know that, but I still... Even though my family stabilized and I had you to look after, I needed Summer. I buried that down because that need almost got you killed.

"I didn't want to have a meltdown. I didn't want to be like Dad. I told myself I would never let trying to find Raven get in the way of taking care of you, but here I am."

Yang gritted her teeth.

"I couldn't change myself, even after ten years. I was angry that Mom died, angry at myself for being mad at her for dying, and I pushed all that onto Raven because I didn't want to admit any of it. God, I'm pathetic."

Yang put her head in her hands and silence fell between the two sisters. This was low; Yang knew that the forged big sister persona she'd spent a decade establishing was shattered. Now she really had failed at everything.

“Yang?” Ruby said. “Uncle Qrow wasn't the reason I wanted to become a Hunter.”

Yang lifted her head and looked at Ruby. Somehow, she wasn’t disgusted.

She was smiling.

“I wanted to become a Hunter because of how cool you were back then. Your arms stretched out… like you could take anything and throw it right back, just to protect me.”

Yang frowned.  _ That?  _ she thought.  _ How could she think of it like that? _ A young girl desperately trying to make herself bigger than she ever could be, probably more scared than the five-year-old behind her. It was a pathetic attempt. Qrow swooped in a second later, and in the blink of an eye, the Grimm were dead before they hit the ground.

How could that Yang, sobbing and weak, be something that could make Ruby smile?

But Ruby didn’t care.

“I thought you were incredible. I still do,” Ruby said. She looked at her big sister. “You’re my hero, Yang.”

Yang’s eyes widened.  _ Even after all this,  _ Yang thought,  _ she still looks at me like she used to like I could do no wrong. Why? _

"OK, my turn," Ruby said. She exhaled and rubbed her hands together. "Where to start? I... I miss Mom so much. When Mom died, you know this, but I wasn't really old enough to know what was happening. I remember a lot of yelling, and I wanted to yell too, be mad or cry, but I never knew Summer like you and Dad did, so I buried my feelings. For both of you."

Yang wanted to grab Ruby and shake her, stop her from even thinking something like that.

_ I never thought we were hurting you. I never wanted to... _

But Ruby looked serious. Tears were building in her younger sister's eyes, so Yang stayed calm and let her finish.

"I hate that everyone recognizes Summer in me, and I never knew her long enough to appreciate that. 'You're just like Summer.' How?! I wish I saw that too, but I never will." Ruby lowered her head and sobbed. "I just wanted to know my mom."

Ruby broke down in tears. Yang reached over and hugged her. Yang gripped her so tight she wasn’t sure she’d ever let go. “Looks like we need to take care of ourselves as much as we try to take care of each other, huh?” Yang said.

Ruby laughed between sobs. “Yeah.” She held Yang even tighter and finally, after all this time, let everything out.

Both sisters started walking back along the forest road. They reached the clearing, and the town came in sight. As they got close, Yang could see Weiss and Blake waiting for them at the gate. Yang swallowed and walked up to them at Ruby’s side.

Yang and Ruby faced them for a long moment before she finally spoke. “Hey guys.”

Weiss put her hands on her hips and humphed as Blake glanced down.

“Sorry,” Yang started. She didn’t know what to say. What could she say? “I…”

Weiss suddenly pushed Blake forward at Ruby and marched up to the three of them. She stretched out her arms as wide as she could and pulled the entire team in for a giant bear hug.

“You idiots,” Weiss said through a sob. “I love you guys.”

Yang looked at her and then at all of them squished together. Ruby was smiling, and Blake’s ears were still perked up from Weiss’s surprise hug.”

_ I’ve been really stupid, haven’t I, _ Yang thought. She could remember telling Neo and Roman last night that she didn’t mind Blake or even Ruby’s wrongs. She could forgive them. And… just like how she was willing to forgive her friends, against all conceivable odds, they were willing to forgive her too.

Yang reached around and pulled everyone in even tighter.

_ I don’t deserve this,  _ Yang thought. But she didn’t care.

 

* * *

 

“I got them!” Ruby stepped inside her safe house holding a grocery sack and closed the door behind her.

“Just in time,” Blake called over her shoulder. “Throw them in quick.”

Ruby’s team was standing in the kitchen preparing a chicken curry for dinner. Blake was standing over a big pot where the bubbling meal sizzled, waiting for the potatoes that Ruby ran out to grab at the last minute, luckily able to buy them before the shops closed for the night.

Dropping the bag by the sink and cutting board, Ruby got to chopping away at the potatoes like a rapid-fire guillotine.

“Does this look fine?” Blake asked Yang about the curry.

Yang leaned over the pot. “Looks good...wait!” She grabbed some spice and threw in a couple more heavy shakes. “Perfect.”

“You sure that’s not too much?” Blake grimaced.

“Patch recipe,” Yang said. “Trust me. Just stir it in a couple times once Ruby’s ready.”

“Okay…” Blake shrugged. She turned to another pot on the stove. “Oh, the rice! Weiss, take over.”

“Sure,” Weiss slipped in front of the curry for as Blake grabbed the rice off the burner.

Ruby lifted the cutting board and pushed the potatoes into the curry. “There you go, Weiss.”

“Thank you, Ruby.” Weiss picked up the wooden spoon and started turning the thick chicken brew.

“Scrape the bottom,” Blake said while pouring the rice into a bowl.

“I know what I’m doing,” Weiss said.

“Then scrape the bottom.”

Weiss grumbled and dug deeper to the edges of the bowl.

After some more time cooking on the stove, while Ruby was setting out the bowls on the low table, Yang let Weiss know that the food was ready. Yang rolled up her sleeves and hefted the pot in the air. “Hot pad!” she yelled. “Hot pad!”

Ruby scrambled over to the kitchen and started throwing open drawers. “Do we not have hotpads?”

“In the bag.” Weiss pointed to the shopping sack from their grocery run earlier in the day.

“Oh…” Ruby grabbed them out and placed them in a square on the table. Yang set down the pot, and a splash of curry juice dripped down the side.

After a short knock on the door, Roman and Neo entered the apartment. “Yo!” Roman said, and Neo waved.

“Oh good! You made it,” Ruby said.

_ “We bought a bag of chips each,” _ Neo typed as Roman handed Blake two bags of chips: one salt and vinegar, and the other barbeque flavored.

Ruby stared at the chips for a second but decided to ignore the strange side dish and go with the flow. 

“Have a seat,” Ruby said as she headed back to the kitchen.

Blake sat out the chips and walked over to Ruby. “You had to invite them?” she whispered and glanced at the mercenary pair as Roman removed his hat and Neo eyed the curry like a predator while she waited. “I mean, I know they’re staying here with you, but…”

“They’re cool, trust me.” Ruby grabbed the bread and set it out on the table.

Roman inhaled the steam coming off the pot through his nose. He grabbed a napkin and stuffed it down his collar. “Been a while since we had home cooking,” he said.

“What, you can’t cook for yourself?” Blake said while she and Weiss sat down at the low table.

“I would never deny someone the opportunity to charm me with a piping hot meal.”

_ “Oh yeah, they’re lining up around the block,”  _ Neo typed while she looked inside an empty water glass.

Yang laughed and sat down with the rest of the group as they all started eating. The curry was perfect, just like how it used to be on Patch. Roman and Weiss were dying from the spice, but it was so delicious they were determined to work through it.

A minute or two into the meal, another knock rang from the door.

“Coming!” Ruby got up to answer it.

When Ruby opened the door, Raven was standing in the hall outside of the safehouse. She looked down at Ruby and frowned.

“Hi.” Ruby said. The eating at the table stopped at the sight of her.

Raven glanced at the door frame to the side. “Is it alright if I dropped by for a second?” Raven asked.

Ruby blinked. “Sure,” she said. She opened the door wide. “Come on in.”

Raven looked down at the threshold and slowly stepped through.

“Have a seat,” Ruby gestured at the table, and everyone started to get back to eating.

Raven sat down next to Roman. She made eye contact with Yang and immediately glanced down at the table.

Yang sighed and handed Raven the serving spoon. “Here, try it, it’s good.”

Raven looked up and smiled. “Thanks,” she said as she  looked into the pot. “Is that the stuff Tai made all the time?”

“Yep,” Ruby said.

“Pass me a bowl NOW.”

Blake passed one of the spare bowls with a grin on her face.

Neo turned to Yang.  _ “So you can cook too?” _ she typed. Neo wiggled her eyebrows.  _ “Talented in more ways than one.” _

Yang choked on her food.

“Is the spice getting to you too?” Weiss asked. “Your face is all red.”

“I’m fine!” Yang croaked and downed a glass of water.

“Pass the bread Torchwick,” Raven said.

“Aye aye, captain,” Roman said with his mouth full.

Ruby looked around the table at their little group. Weiss was raising an eyebrow at a conversation between Yang and Neo that Yang was desperately trying to shut down. Roman and Raven started talking quietly but cheerfully and Blake…

Blake and Ruby made eye contact. Blake smiled and went back to eating her food.

Ruby closed her eyes and took in the moment. She grinned and held out her bowl for a second serving.

 

* * *

It was morning already. The sun was blinding, but Ozpin didn’t make a move to shield his eyes. With every second the hidden trail to his student was slipping through his fingers. He sat back in his desk chair and stared off at a corner of the ceiling.

He was at a desk like this when he first saw the report ten years ago. It wasn’t even a special or unique set of casualty reports. Just a brief summary of Hunters who had fallen in the field during the previous week.

He read a name and cause of death.

Then another name.

Then Summer.

Ozpin barely comprehended it while he read over the file. His prized student, the woman who had gotten him back on his feet, the reason he was the powerful man he became, was just another statistic. He did his best to keep up appearances and do his duty to honor her memory-- until ten years later, when he heard about a similar young woman with silver eyes, in police custody.

_ I just wanted to get it right, _ Ozpin thought.  _ I just wanted to fix this. _

The door to his temporary office opened, and Ozpin glanced at the intruder. Amber entered and looked at him with a bored expression. Ignoring his mental state, she dropped a Scroll on his desk.

“What’s this?” Ozpin frowned.

“Yang’s Xiao Long’s location,” Amber said.

Ozpin sat up. “You found her?!”

“I never lost her,” Amber said. She pressed the screen of the Scroll, showing Xiao Long’s travel path and predicted location. “I kept my eyes on her whereabouts since she snuck off. Two days ago she arrived in a Faunus settlement called Snowdale.”

Ozpin knew the area, he probably even stayed in a nearby settlement when he was active years ago. “Why would she go there? From her path, it wasn’t an accident. It was the goal of her entire journey.”

“I have some theories, but if Yang is there…”

“Miss Rose could be as well.”

Amber shrugged. “Possible.”

Ozpin flicked on his personal desktop Scroll and looked up any information he could on Snowdale and stood up as he saw the file at the top of the list.

“James’s raid mission.”

Amber raised an eyebrow. “It leaves in half an hour. What about it?”

“Snowdale is on the list.”

  
  


Ozpin and Amber walked up the loading ramp into the near battleship-sized Atlas troop transport. They walked past the Atlas troops and newly arrived upgraded Knight models and Paladin mechs all finishing loading up gear for the trip as the two hunters headed up to the bridge at the top of the ship.

_ Raiding White Fang hideouts shouldn’t require this many troops or any Paladin mechs,  _ Ozpin thought.  _ What is James planning? _

The bridge was a wide room with a row of consoles and Scroll screens by a large window overlooking Vale. Navigators, pilots and communication officers were stationed around the edges of the room, all overseen by General Ironwood, standing in the center of the bridge, directing the final stages before they took off to raid White Fang hideouts in settlements across the continent.

Ironwood had just finished shaking Jaune and Pyrrha’s hands as they and the rest of Team JNPR were being shown around the bridge, ready and armed for battle and to lead the charge with Ironwood on the campaign. The general smiled at the team before catching Ozpin and Amber entered the bridge out of the corner of his eye.

He frowned.

“Oz, what are you doing here?”

“I’m afraid that we’re coming with you, James.” Ozpin stopped in front of the general and leaned on his cane.

Ironwood walked close to Ozpin and Amber so that his conversation wouldn’t be completely overheard by JNPR, who were already watching with keen interest. “What changed?”

“I have reason to believe that Miss Rose is in Snowdale.”

Ironwood stopped. He glanced over his shoulder. JNPR had overheard that last bit and were more curious than ever now that their friend was involved. “Are you sure?”

“It’s my only lead, James,” Ozpin whispered.

Ironwood nodded. He put a hand on Ozpin’s shoulder. “For you, old friend. Luckily that doesn't change the schedule too much.”

“Thank you.”

“Navigator!” Ironwood shouted to the front of the bridge. “Change of plans. Our first target is located--” He continued to give the new coordinates to the officers as he walked away from the Beacon professors.

The ship rumbled as the engines started. Ozpin and Amber buckled in next to Team JNPR as the ship took off and started to fly over Vale toward the mountains to the east.

Jaune leaned close to Ozpin. “We’re going after Ruby?” he said with a glint of hope in his eye. One shared by the rest of his teammates.

“Yes,” Ozpin said. He smiled. Nora and even Ren grinned back. Jaune nodded and Pyrrha, for the first time all morning, let her serious expression slip. The team's morale increased tenfold.

Ozpin looked out at nothing in particular. The buzzing and beepings of the bridge fading out of focus.

_ I’ll find you, Summer. You’re not lost yet. _


	29. Hopeless Resistance

A tan cargo airship touched down in the center of the Snowdale settlement’s landing port. The engines died down as Roman, Ruby, and Weiss walked up to the vessel and waited. The heavy loading door dropped down in front of them, revealing the pilot standing in the bay of the ship surrounded by crates and barrels of cargo.

“It’s been a hot minute, Roman,” the pilot said as he walked down the loading ramp to the group on the ground.

Roman patted him on the shoulder. “How’ve you been, you bastard?”

“Not bad,” the pilot said. “Not bad at all. Still pretending you need that cane?”

Roman laughed and turned to Weiss and Ruby. “Ladies, this man here is the best smuggler in all Remnant. He’s gotten Neo and I out of some of the greatest scrapes of our careers.”

“Damn right I have,” the pilot said. “So, today it’s just you, Neo, and some cargo?”

“Correct, good sir.” Roman hit his cane against the ground and leaned against it.

“Good. I want to get back home to the boyfriend sometime this week, and after this, I have some contraband to pick up in Vacuo.” He clapped his gloved hands together. “So let’s do this.”

The pilot walked away to talk to the port master and get the ship refueled for the long flight.

Weiss frowned and folded her arms. “Do all your new friends have to be criminal riff-raff,” she said to Ruby.

“Well, we’re criminals now too, so play nice, Weiss,” Ruby said.

Weiss humphed and rolled her eyes.

“Schnee, Schnee, Schnee…” Roman shook his head. “You see, your boss here--”

“Leader…” Ruby said.

“--appreciates the shady underbelly of the Kingdoms and the services we provide.”

_Well, I guess I’m not a leader of anything anymore,_ Ruby thought as she sighed. There was something a little sad and comforting about that.

Ruby turned to Roman. “Will you two be okay in Vacuo?”

“Oh don’t worry,” Roman said with a smile, “Vacuo is lovely this time of year.”

“I meant…” Ruby slumped and glared at Roman and his grin. “Aren’t you supposed to be laying low?”

“The safehouse has a window with a view,” Roman said as he twirled his cane. “So what are your little squad’s plans?”

“We’re going to head back to Beacon and meet up with Winter,” Ruby said. “Then maybe go to Patch after that.”

Weiss cleared her throat. “I’m pretty sure if we go to Patch, we’ll be extradited immediately.”

Ruby frowned at Weiss.

“I’m just saying.” Weiss shrugged.

Ruby sighed. “Honestly, we don't know. Maybe Vacuo? We’ll look you up if we go there.”

Roman laughed. “ _If_ you can find me.”

Ruby looked up at his conspicuous bowler hat and smiled. “It shouldn’t take too long.”

A loud and high pitched ringtone from Weiss’s pocket interrupted the conversation. Weiss pulled out a disposable Scroll and looked at the number.

“Who is it?” Ruby asked.

“It’s Winter,” Weiss said. “I’m supposed to call her in case of an emergency, so why is…”

Weiss answered the Scroll and put it on speakerphone.

“Winter?” Weiss said. “What’s going on?”

“Weiss!” Winter’s voice came through the other end of the line. The signal was a little choppy, but her voice came through clear enough. “Are you still in Snowdale?!”

“Yes?” Weiss looked up at Ruby and Roman to gauge their reactions.

“Get out of there!” Winter’s voice yelled. “Get _everyone_ out of there now!”

“Hold on a second,” Weiss said. “What are you talking about?”

“Ironwood is leading a raid on that settlement,” Winter said. “They just left and are a couple hours out. Run!”

Ruby flinched as soon as she heard the word “raid.” The image of a sudden explosion ruining a settlement lane and covering everyone in it in a blanket of smoke and rubble rushed into her mind. A glance at Roman's wide eyes and his hand clutching his cane made it obvious that he was picturing the same thing. It wasn't any comfort that his expression mirrored the cold sting in her stomach.

 

* * *

 

“A few days ago, we got our hands on the list of settlements targeted by the next set of Atlas Military raids,” Fennec Albain said to the group. "Atlas's plan is to travel to the southern end of the continent and hit settlements hiding White Fang members or bases, then move north into this area before heading back to Vale. Khan secretly sent as many ships as she could spare to evacuate the first settlement and take on the raiding party when they attacked.”

The fox Faunus was explaining the situation to the members of Team RWBY, Raven, and the settlements gate guards in Raven’s apartment safe house. They were scattered around the room, sitting or standing while listening intently.

Fennec continued, “But for some reason, instead of following their scheduled strategy, they’ve targeted Snowdale first.”

Ruby clenched her hands together. “But why?”

“It doesn't matter,” Raven said while leaning against the room’s wall. “They’re coming either way.”

Blake nodded. It wouldn’t do them any good to worry or speculate now, but she still couldn’t help but have a sinking feeling that somehow she and her team’s presence here was responsible.

“So… when will help get here?” Yang asked.

“Beacon is still too vulnerable to come to our aid,” Raven said, “and Khan’s troops won’t be able to remobilize and arrive here until early tomorrow morning.”

“Then we need to evacuate everyone now and keep them safe until The White Fang shows up,” the gate guard said.

“When will Atlas get here?” Blake asked.

“A little over two hours,” Fennec said. “At least.”

“Oh boy,” Yang said.

“So how do we get everyone out?” Ruby said. “There won’t be a town left by the time The White Fang gets here.”

Yang glanced over at Raven. “Can you use those portals of yours?”

“It’s limited,” Raven said. “I could get a few out, but it works by tethering to another Aura-user. Fennec for example, whenever I need to get back here, Taurus and Sienna, etc. it uses up too much Aura, so it’s only functional in combat as a quick exit. Using it to get some people out would leave me useless while protecting the rest.”

“We can commandeer every ship we have in the settlement and get people as far away as we can,” the gate guard said. “Then round up every truck and tractor and lead a caravan east into the forest.”

“Realistically,” Raven said, “how long will that take?”

“Probably almost two hours,” the guard said.

“That's not enough time,” Weiss said.

“Well, yeah,” Yang said. “That’s what we just established.”

“Not that,” Weiss said. “Even if everyone managed to leave in twenty minutes, we wouldn’t get far enough away to lose them when they follow us.”

“Do you have a better solution?” the guard said.

“No! That’s the problem,” Weiss said.

Blake sighed and folded her arms. Just when she thought the universe was going to give her a break, she and her friends were caught right back in its whims. So much had happened and she felt like out here away from the Kingdoms they would have a chance to reconnect. But even here, the world’s battles still disrupted their lives, and they had no way of influencing it back. They were only individuals in an uncaring world that had no power over. Even without her and her team’s change of heart, nothing would be different. Beacon would have been taken by the White Fang, and the settlements would have been attacked, no matter what Team RWBY did. Maybe for the first time in Blake’s life, she could change that. It would be a small difference, but she might be able to help in some way. Even if her idea was objectively crazy.

“I’ll stall them,” Blake said.

The room fell silent.

“What now?” Yang asked.

Blake stood up straight and walked to the front of the room and faced the group. “I have years of training as a guerilla soldier with The White Fang, and I’m a Hunter-in-training. I can stall some Atlas troopers for a couple hours.”

Ruby sat up with her jaw dropped. “Are you crazy!? Ironwood’s leading them, and they’ll have Hunters.”

“If it gets these people enough time to get to safety, then yes, I am.” Blake turned to Fennec.

Fennec stared back at her. “Are you sure about this?”

Raven stood up and walked up to him. “Get everyone out of here,” she said. “Leave the distraction to us.” She turned and nodded at Blake.

Fennec thanked them and left with the gate guards to spread the word and immediately start the evacuation.

Ruby stood up and walked up to Blake. She opened her mouth to say something but paused. Finally, Ruby smirked and looked up at her. “So what’s the plan?”

“You need to get out of here,” Blake said. “That’s the plan.”

Weiss scoffed. “As if.”

“If you two are going to hit them from the shadows,” Yang said as she stood up, “then we can at least give them something to shoot at in the meantime.”

“Guys…” Blake said. “You don’t have to do this.”

“We’re in,” Ruby said while folding her arms. “What do you need us to do?”

_Man, they really aren't going to let me out of their sights again, are they?_ Blake thought. Even though she’d lied to and hurt them, they still had her back. Her three teammates stood confidently in front of her, ready to follow her lead.

Blake smiled and nodded. “Here’s what we’re going to do…”

 

* * *

 

All of Roman and Neo’s gear and possessions that had been spread casually around the safe house/apartment were now being hastily thrown back together in a frenzy. Roman was on the ground grabbing the last of their belongings and passed them to the side at Neo who was cramming them into a pair of backpacks and a duffle bag, so tight they looked like they were about to break apart at the seams.

“Toothbrushes!” Roman tossed both of theirs to the bed.

Neo caught them and put them in their duffle bag.

“Nuh-uh.” Roman stopped and shook his finger.

Neo rolled her eyes and put the two toothbrushes in a plastic bag and _then_ stuffed them in the duffle bag.

The door to the apartment opened, and Ruby came in. She slowly closed the door behind her and walked up to the duo hastily packing.

“Not staying around?” Ruby said.

“Ha, ha,” Roman said dryly. “The Atlas Military is the last group I need to be reunited with right now.”

Ruby nodded. “Sad to see you guys go.”

Neo smiled and nodded. Her Scroll had been trapped in the bottom of a backpack in all the chaos, but the sentiment came through.

“Well, unlike you and your posse, ‘I’ am a coward,” Roman said. Roman reached over to the stack of bags they’d put the money in, grabbed one and held it out for Ruby. “Here’s your share.”

Ruby took it and looked inside. “This is more than we agreed.”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about, Red.”

Ruby smiled and tossed the bag back to him. “Hold on to it for me.”

Roman smirked. “A promise to meet in Vacuo then, huh?”

“As long as you don’t spend it all,” Ruby said.

_“Will you be alright?”_ Neo had found a notepad and written it down.

“I fought you two enough times to pick up on a few of your theatrics and distraction tricks.”

“Confident you’ll survive today?” Roman asked.

Ruby shrugged. “Can’t afford to.”

Roman sighed. “So you’re making up for past wrongs, is that it?”

“No,” Ruby said. “Nothing to do with that.”

“Then why?” Roman let his arms drop to his side.

“Because…” Ruby smirked at how simple-minded it all was. “It’s right.”

Roman laughed. “That indomitable spirit of yours?”

“Yeah,” Ruby said. “That word…”

Holding up the bag, Roman said, “Just make sure you collect it.”

“Will do. You still owe me lunch after all.”

“Vacuo restaurant, right?”

Ruby nodded and after some last goodbyes walked out of the apartment.

Neo and Roman waved back as she left, slowly stopping once the door had been closed. Shuffling his feet, Roman turned around and the looked at the bags next to Neo.

Neo looked up at him with an earnest look.

“Shut up,” Roman said and sighed.

 

* * *

 

The isolated settlement of Snowdale was in chaos. The Albain brothers combined with the settlement guards and leaders immediately rushed building to building to spread the word of the immediate evacuation. The settlers frantically collected themselves and any belongings they could carry as over the next hour and a half they headed for the landing pads for the ships or the edge of the city with trucks and farming vehicles, leaving the town to Blake and her fellow volunteers.

Ruby climbed up the stairs to the top of the settlement wall at the west end of town.

Her teammates were waiting for her there with Blake at the front, keeping lookout over the forest, waiting for Atlas to arrive. Yang had changed into a long brown coat with orange lining, new boots, and black fitted pants, saying earlier that she might as well look the part of the hero. Weiss was reloading her rapier and spun the cylinder shut. She swiped her sword through the air before sheathing it. Blake and Raven had coordinated the collection of all the Dust ammunition for fighting off Grimm in town and distributed it into ammo drops around town for the team. They’d prepared ammo types for all their weapons, from Ruby’s high caliber rounds to Raven’s Dust grenades, just in case she needed to get serious. Raven was kneeling down a few meters away from the rest of the team, her head lowered in meditation.

“The last of the Faunus just got through the east gate with the, ah… fox dudes,” Ruby said. “I forgot their names. Sorry.”

The sound of airship engines came with a gust of wind blowing through Ruby’s hair. Ruby looked over her shoulder at all the settlement’s ships flying away, carrying as many Faunus as they could to safety.

The final one to escape the town was the tan cargo ship, Neo and Roman’s. It vanished into the overcast sky as the noise of the engines dissipated over the pine trees.

_Goodbye, guys._

Ruby smiled sadly before she turned back to the west. The silence of the settlement roared at the back of her head as she and her friends waited.

“Everything set?” Blake asked.

“Aye aye, Blake,” Weiss smirked. “And, I’ve prepared our ship for a quick getaway just in case we also need to fall back to the forest.”

“By that you mean: just in case we need to run away as fast as we can, right?” Ruby said.

“I’m trying to stay dignified, Ruby.”

“Instead of a ship we could use a truck or four wheelers, or…” Yang muttered while laughing nervously. “Always with the airships. Ground travel’s much better.”

Leveling out Crescent Rose, Ruby looked through her scope. After a couple minutes waiting in the cold, Ruby shouted, “I see something!”

Weiss frowned. “Probably them then.”

“Lock and load!” Yang yelled while punching her fists together.

Raven stood up and slipped on her Grimm mask as she walked over and joined the team.

“Alright,”  Blake said as she turned and faced the group. “Remember, keep fights quick and fight smart. Hit and run only. Weiss and Yang, I’m looking at you. Pick them off one at a time. We need to draw this out as long as possible.”

Her team nodded.

“Well, with the entire town left to ourselves,” a voice behind Ruby said, “there’s plenty of space at our disposal.”

Everyone turned around, seeing Roman Torchwick and Neopolitan rise to the top of the stairs. They stood side by side and faced the squad. Roman put both his hands on his cane, and Neo leaned her umbrella against her shoulder and smirked.

Ruby smiled ear to ear.

“We’re here to provide our famous distraction services,” Roman said. “For new customers, the first job is free.”

“What about your ship?” Weiss asked.

“We handed out the space for some old and sickly Faunus. Might as well do our part and get them to safety,” Roman said. “You may applaud at my altruism.”

“It must have cost you a penny or two to convince your pilot,” Raven said.

“I thought about taking it out of Red’s pay, but Neo volunteered.”

Neo rolled her eyes and grinned. _“I talked him into it,”_ she typed.

“I didn’t think they had it in them,” Weiss said.

Faster than either could react, Ruby rushed forward and pulled them in for a hug. Neo instantly hugged back, squeezing her and Roman in the middle of the little group hug.

Roman flinched at the sudden embrace but only sighed.

“It’s good to see you guys,” Ruby said.

“Well,” Roman said, “maybe the world could use a little more spirit.”

Ruby looked up at him in shock.

“Don’t rub it in!”

Ruby laughed. “Wait, what about the rest of the money?”

“No need to worry, I trust our pilot to drop off our belongings and riches. It will be waiting for us in Vacuo when we arrive at the safehouse.”

“Of course…” Weiss groaned.

_“You guys have room in your exit strategy, right?”_ Neo typed.

“Little tight, but we’ll manage, Yang said.

“Fine,” Blake groaned. “I guess we need any help we can get.” She complained, but Ruby spotted the faint hint of a smile under her scowl.

A snowflake hit Ruby’s hair by her forehead. She looked up with Roman and Neo to finally see the first snowfall of the new year.

The snow veiled the town as it softly fell around Ruby and her friends, covering the forest and hills in the glowing white blanket that lit up the serene landscape. The calm seemed to last forever like even the world was tense in anticipated for the inevitable clash.

The Atlas ship burst through the curtain of snow. The growl of its engines announced its arrival as it started to fly low over the town. Ruby, Blake, and company craned their necks up to look at the cold metal behemoth. Ruby shielded her eyes from the blast of hot wind from its Dust engines.

“I don’t think we’re going to get away from this one, guys,” Yang said wide-eyed at the ship bearing down on them.

Blake stared up at the ship and clenched her fists. Her ears perked up, and her muscles tensed, prepared for whatever was thrown at her.

The large transport ship passed over Snowdale and turned around as it lowered onto the flat field a hundred yards away from the settlement’s south gate. The thud of the landing gears larger than some of the smaller buildings inside the walls shook the earth. Ruby could feel the shock wave travel from her boots to her skull.

Two Paladin mechs dropped from the side of the ship and slammed into the field, causing a shower of earth and freshly fallen snow as they shifted into their combat modes and pointed Dust artillery at the settlement.

Ruby and the six other defenders jaws dropped as they looked at their opposition.

“Huh,” Ruby said. Somehow, the ship was bigger than she thought it would be.

Weiss leaned her head back. “Well, shit.”

 

* * *

 

_“Do I regret it? Which part? Fighting back against you guys, or getting caught?_

_“No. If it was just the seven of us versus that Atlas army all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing I did. (OK, there were a couple things I could have done better during my fight with the Paladin, shoulda zigged when I zagged, and… You know what, you get it…)_

_“So, that’s how we got into this mess. You want to know the truth about Snowdale? Well… here we go…”_


	30. The Battle of Snowdale--Part 1

The landing doors of the huge Atlas transport slammed into the earth with a mechanical thud. Atlas soldiers and reprogrammed battle Atlesian Knight robots ran out and took up formation in front of the ship, their boots kicking up snow as they plowed forward. Two piloted Paladin mechs stood on one end of the troops, and a single automatic Advanced Paladin prototype stood on the other.

Every one of them held their positions, waiting for the order to attack. The delay was caused by the seven figures blocking their way, standing almost a hundred yards away from them, right in front of the settlement’s gates.

Following closely behind Headmaster Ozpin and General Ironwood, Amber walked down the landing ramp with the student team JNPR.

“How did she find Raven?” Ozpin asked. “I don’t understand.”

Ironwood sighed. “Your bad students flock together, Oz. You should have expected this.”

_ All of them but Branwen is fodder, _ Amber thought. Not that anyone else understood that. Headmaster Ozpin had demanded that they talk with the students before the attack began, much to the general’s annoyance. Both of their attitudes about this was pointless.

Amber let a small grin show her teeth mashed together. Keeping a close eye on Xiao Long paid off exactly how she hoped it would. As she and the other Hunters started to walk toward them across the snow covered field, Amber’s hands hanging at her side clenched as her fingers cracked in anticipation.

“But, why is Ruby and Yang with  _ them _ ?” Nora Valkyrie asked quietly.

Lie Ren put a hand on her shoulder and silently stared forward.

Arc, the leader, finally spoke up, “We have a mission. We were prepared to deal with whatever was waiting for us.”

Nikos nodded. “Right…” She was less convinced, but the other two members of her team nodded.

The only opponent other than Branwen that stood out to Amber was Ruby Rose. What could have happened the last week and a half to cause her to flip 180 degrees in this conflict? Was she so weak to be easily coerced over? Probably not, but it was interesting, to say the least.

Coming to the end of their march, Ironwood, Ozpin, Amber, and Team JNPR stood face to face with the resisters. The air between the two groups was electric. Torchwick and his accomplice tried to harden their expression to match the tone, attempting what Rose had failed completely.

“Hey, guys…” Ruby said with a small awkward wave.

Nora and Ren glared at Torchwick.

Ozpin looked between Ruby and Raven, unable to find words.

“Well, this is… odd,” Ironwood finally spoke. “But not unexpected.” His eyes rested on Weiss.

“Miss Rose,” Ozpin said. “What are you doing here? We looked everywhere for you and this--”

“Sorry professor,” Ruby said. “But I’m not in charge here.”

“What?” Ozpin gripped his cane.

Blake spoke up, “We want to talk.”

Ironwood smirked and chuckled. “And what do _ you _ want?”

“For you to take your troops and leave this settlement alone,” Blake said.

“Why should I?” Ironwood crossed his arms, clearly amused.

“You have no authority here,” Blake said. “Even Vale’s armies cannot mobilize against a settlement.”

“Vale has evidence that this settlement has been harboring White Fang terrorists.” Ironwood turned to Raven. “Obviously, those reports are correct.”

“This mission is clearly against the Vale treaty.”

“With everything in Beacon and Mistral going on,” Ironwood said, “who’s going to stop me? Seven of you?” Ironwood looked back at his transport ship and the soldiers and robots. “One, two, twenty… ah, damn, I lost count. Want me to count again? Ten, twenty, thirty… Damn it, lost count again.”

“You can’t seriously believe that the Kingdoms are going to let you continue rampaging through the settlements? Any court worth a damn would--”

“Enough,” Ironwood interrupted. “You care about those courts as much as I do. Do you know what is going to happen next? I’m going to order my men to demolish that wall behind you. By the time we make it all the way back to my ship, I’ll have expected you all to  _ run _ .”

Ironwood turned and started walking back to his ship. Jaune looked at him and then back to his team and Ozpin.

Ozpin looked like he hadn’t heard a word of Blake and Ironwood’s failed negotiations. He stared at Ruby, shaking.

“Miss Rose…” He reached out as if to take her away from the criminals she was standing with. “Please come back to the ship. I’ll clear all this up for you. Your team as well. Even you Miss Belladonna. This isn’t worth dying for. You deserve better than this.”

Raven shifted and turned her masked face away from Ozpin.

Ruby sighed and sadly shook her head. “I’m not going to do that, professor.”

Ozpin’s hand trembled. “You wouldn’t… she would never…” He pulled back his hand and quickly turned and followed behind Ironwood as fast as he could move with his cane.

Jaune and Pyrrha looked between their Headmaster and their friends and chased after Ozpin. Jaune looked over his shoulder and made eye contact with Ruby before turning back.

Nora gave one last glare at Roman. “Don’t run too far,” she said before she and Ren followed the rest of her team back to the ship.

Amber was the last to leave. She stood motionless in front of the group and looked at Ruby curiously. “You just walked away.”

Ruby shrugged. “You were right. I wasn’t suited for the job.”

“Huh,” Amber said.

She turned, snuck one last glance at Branwen, and squinted as a flash of pain spread through the scar covering her face as she headed to the ship with the others.

 

* * *

 

Ironwood walked onto his ship’s bridge and brushed the snow off his coat. The snowfall had died down as soon as he got back to the transport and left the other hunters and students in the cargo bay below, but not before a layer had blanketed the forest and settlement around him. He was used to snow. Whatever this part of Sanus weather could throw at him was nothing compared to his cadet days being stations at a northern Atlas military base.

Crossing his hands behind his back, Ironwood approached the front window of the ship and stared out at the figures at the front gate, particularly the one at the end of the line: Raven Branwen. Of course her kids would eventually meet up with her. Just like the Faunus and that Schnee brat, Team RWBY was a team of traitors waiting to happen, and they finally became an obstacle. But, in a strange but fortunate way, they all happened to be lined up ready for him to erase the problem.

“Mech pilots,” Ironwood ordered over the radio channel. “Take aim at the front gate and fire on my order.”

“James, what are you doing?” Ozpin said while he entered the bridge behind him.

Outside, the two piloted mechs moved to the front of the formation and raised their cannons up, locking into their firing position.

Not a single one of the figures in the distance moved.

“Alright then,” Ironwood said as his eyebrow twitched. He switched on the channel to the pilots. “Fire.”

Ozpin’s face drained as he stepped toward the window.

Both mechs fired a single Dust mortar each. The shells flew arched high above the field and came down at the gate. It exploded apart, causing a wave of heat and shredded wood and metal that covered the rebels and evaporating the snow around the blast into a steam cloud, surrounding the targeted area.

Ironwood stepped up to the window and narrowed his eyes.

The cloud of steam cleared, and the problems were still standing in a line like they hadn’t even flinched from the explosion right behind them.

“Fine then,” Ironwood said through gritted teeth. He grabbed the radio and ordered, “Soldiers, positions!”

Two-thirds of his troops advanced. The soldiers and Knights moved forward through the field until the front line was two dozen yards away from the targets.

“Aim,” Ironwood ordered.

The front line of lifted their Dust rifles and line up the seven motionless rebels.

“James!” Ozpin screamed behind him.

“Fire!”

“ _ No! _ ”

The soldiers fired in the distance, the faint sound of a dozen blasts barely registered to Ironwood’s ears. The figures in the distance fell.

_ Disappointing,  _ Ironwood thought, _ but inevitable. _

“Ah… sir?” a soldier on the radio said. “Targets destroyed, but…”

Ironwood squinted and looked closer at what was left of the rebel’s figures.

Those weren’t bodies. The ground was covered instead with shattered Aura glass.

“Move in!” Ironwood yelled into the radio. “They’ve fallen back into the settlement. I want all of them, dead or alive.”

The soldiers and battle robots in the distance rushed over the remains of the illusion and over the destroyed gate. Ozpin gasped in relief as soon as he realized what was going on and Ironwood started to pace the bridge, listening to separate reports from the squads that his forces had split up into while moving through the settlement.

_ “Checking buildings.” _

_ “Main Street clear, sir.” _

_ “The settlement has been recently abandoned, sir. Looks like they knew we were--” _

The radio shut off.

“Report!” Ironwood yelled back.

The radio blurted a message from another team, _ “Open fire!” _

_ “Lost my partner. It was the red one--” _ A gunshot and then the radio cutting out with the sound of metal slicing through an Aura before static.

_ “They’re picking us off one by one!” _

“Regroup into larger squads,” Ironwood ordered. He switched on the transports intercoms. “Team JNPR! Move in two pairs. If you want your friends to be brought back safely, then bring them in yourselves.” He switched off the radio. _ That should motivate them. _

“Sir!” an officer at one of the communication stations called out. “We found the settlers.”

“Where?”

“They’re heading east through the forest.”

“Send the rest of the battalion and the three Paladins to hunt them down!”

“Yes, sir!”

The remaining soldiers immediately moved out and started marching east with the three Paladin mechs at the rear, all disappearing into the treeline in pursuit.

_ They won’t escape me,  _ Ironwood thought. _ A distraction until the Faunus could get far enough into the forest. A smart plan. However, not good enough. No matter how much you resist me, I will wipe them out. _

 

* * *

 

Dodging gunfire, Blake slipped into a dead-end alley off of the cramped side street.

The two Atlas soldiers and two Atlesian Knights pursuit around the corner and lifted their weapons at the figure of Blake caught at the end of the alley, facing the brick wall away from them.

“Don’t move!”

As they slowly approached her, Blake lifted her hands and vanished. Before any of them could react, Blake was in the middle of the group. She knocked the rifle out of one soldier’s hand and fired a close-range Dust round into one of the robots heads, destroying it, then swung back and clubbed the disarmed soldier unconscious, sending him falling against the ground.

The other trooper turned to react, only for a white glyph to appear at their side, catapulting them against the brick wall at the other end of the alley.

The last Knight turned to Blake, barely able to line up its rifle before a red blur zoomed past and ripped it to shreds. Disassembled parts of the robot bounced down the alley as Ruby skidded to a halt at Blake’s side.

Catching her breath, Ruby looked around to double check that the robots and guards were down. She waved up to Weiss who was on the roof above the alley to signal that they were all clear.

Weiss nodded back and pulled out a pair of binoculars to look around for more troop movements.

“This is going well,” Ruby said.

“Don’t get careless,” Blake said. “We haven’t even scratched--”

An unexpected footstep from behind sent Ruby and Blake spinning around guns drawn at the entrance of the alley.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, ladies!” Roman said lifting his hands in the air. “It’s just us.” He and Neo walked into view, and Ruby sighed in relief.

“Don’t sneak up on people like that,” Ruby said.

_ “Literally what we’re supposed to do,” _ Neo typed.

“How’s it going?” Blake lowered her weapon and walked toward the pair.

_ “Just escaped from picking off a few guys from one of their bigger squads,” _ Neo typed.

“Your welcome,” Roman said, patting his cane before slipping another Dust round into the chamber.

_ “They’re crawling all over the place, though.” _

"Which is why we need to very quietly keep moving," Ruby said as she started to reload Crescent Rose.

“Hey, guys?!” Weiss called down from the roof.

“Shhh,” they all yelled back.

“Oh, shut up! We have a problem.” Weiss looked back into the binoculars. “The rest of the troops are moving. They’re heading… No, wait. East? Damn it! They found the Faunus.”

“We didn’t get them out in time,” Blake said.

“I can catch up to them before they get to them,” Ruby said. “I’m fast enough.”

Blake turned at Ruby and then turned in the direction of the east gate. She gripped her weapon. There’s too much to do, and not enough time or people to handle it.

“Good idea, but take Weiss with you,” Blake said.

“What about you?” Ruby asked back

Blake looked south, at the pillar of smoke from the now destroyed front gate. “None of this is going to end unless we take the fight to them.”

“You want to attack the ship?” Roman asked.

“Ironwood at least. If I can capture their general, I can force Atlas to stand down. End this. He doesn't seem principled enough to risk his own life for the mission. They found the evacuees, they're not going to get away now unless we have something else to stall them with, or if we’re lucky, finish this ourselves.”

Ruby looked at Blake. She stared at her for a long moment, almost scared to break eye contact. But she nodded.

“No wonder Red likes you, you’re insane,” Roman said. “We’ll try to meet back up with Blondie and her mom and keep the rest of these bastards busy.” He and Neo turned and ran off down the side street.

As they left, Ruby activated her Semblance and burst up the side of the building until she landed next to Weiss on the roof. “We’ll come back and give you support,” she called down.

Blake nodded.

Weiss jumped into Ruby’s arms, and they launched off across rooftops as the sped to the other side of the settlement. A flurry of petals drifted down around Blake and settled onto the ground around her.

Blake turned toward the smoke in the distance, took a deep breath, and started to run.

 

* * *

 

An Atlas trooper flew backward as Yang turned and punched another soldier running at her. Raven standing right behind her slashed at another one running at them, slicing off his Aura and dropping him unconscious at their feet along with the majority of the squad of troops and robots they’d ambushed.

One of the last soldiers got a shot off a hit Yang’s side. Her Aura flared, all the stronger for it, and Yang swiped her punch in the air in front of him and a robot, the blast of Aura sending them both flying backward. Raven decapitated the last Knight robot, and silence fell on the street.

“How are you holding up?” Raven asked while sheathing her katana.

Yang checked her gauntlets. “Need a reload.”

They started to walk down a nearby alley to a doorway where they’d hidden a stash of Dust ammo behind earlier.

“You’re a good fighter,” Raven said. “I knew from our fight the other day, but I thought I should mention it.” She turned away to hide her already masked face.

“Thanks,” Yang said with a small smile.

“You do any competitive stuff without Aura on Patch or Vale? Any mixed martial arts?”

“Only in training, and even then, not much.”

“Really? You should get into it.”

“You think?”

“Yeah, I know a--”

Launching through the air like a javelin, a familiar red and gold figure flew through the air and tackled Raven through one of the walls of the alley, the thin brick wall exploding inward.

“Mom!” Yang yelled.

Before she could step forward to chase after them, she looked up in time to see Jaune leaping down at her from the roof with his greatsword stabbing down at her. Yang managed to block with her gauntlets and threw him off. He landed a few yards away from her and held his weapon in front of him.

Yang spared a glance into the building. Pyrrha was ruthlessly going after Raven with her spear and shield, forcing her to play defensive as the fight pushed further into the building and out of sight, only the faint sound of metal clashing against metal remaining in the alley outside.

Yang turned back to Jaune. “Nothing personal, man,” she said and charged him.

Yang viciously started throwing punches at him, as much as he was trying to keep her on the defensive, she was too good for that. Jaune managed to counter-attack, and she let him graze her, only boosting her power for the next punch, which landed across the Aura covering his face. He recovered and tried to move back out of her range and swung to make her back up. Yang easily swatted the sword away, spinning him around with it and rushed up behind him and trapped him in a headlock.

“You can’t win,” she said.

“Maybe not,” Jaune said, “but don’t underestimate me.”

Yang looked down at his free hand gripping her forearm. His Semblance was activated and affecting her Aura.

Yang let go and jumped back, creating some distance and checked herself. Her boosted strength from her previous fights was almost gone. Her Semblance strengthens her Aura the more damaged it was, and Jaune had just healed her Aura, but he didn’t replenish it, meaning that he could chip away at her without any of the benefits she’d based her entire fighting style around.

Yang smirked. “Smart.”

“I didn’t want to believe it,” Jaune said, “but after all four of you disappeared, I came up with some ideas on how to fight all of you.”

Jaune held his sword back, ready to run forward at her, but Yang charged him first. She feinted him out twice before dodging and shotgun blasting him in the side.

As he staggered back, Yang moved in to shotgun blast his chest, but he quickly split his weapon in half, his shield forming on his arm which blocked the shot.

He swung his long sword, and Yang stepped back to avoid, his follow up strike slashed her Aura. Yang could feel a little of her Semblance kick in, but Jaune stepped closer and with a quick grab immediately healed the damage.

Yang grit her teeth, and using her gauntlets, blasted and leaped over his back. She landed and lined up both her gauntlets for a huge double shotgun blast.

Yang fired, and Jaune leaped out of the way.

Only then did she see were both blasts were aimed at.

The Dust blast shredded the door and wall of the alley, a bullseye on where they'd hidden the bag of Dust ammunition.

One of the shots ignited the Dust grenade belt and exploded.

The last thing Yang saw was a wall of heat destroying the building in front of her, Jaune being blown sideways out of the alley as Yang was launched backward with a wave of debris and fire.

 

* * *

 

Soaring over the wall while carrying Weiss, Ruby crashed onto a thin layer of snow on the east end of the settlement before she burst forward into the forest. Weiss held on as tightly as she could as Ruby zigged and zagged between trees, drawing a red trail of rose petals as they kept an eye out for any sign of the Atlas soldiers.

Behind them, Weiss heard a faint echo of an explosion. She could only hope that it wasn’t something she needed to be worried about, but they had to stay focused on protecting the settlers.

Less than half a minute after they entered the treeline, they spotted two Paladin mechs trailing behind a group of soldiers and Knight robots searching the forest. From the number of troops visible, Weiss deduced that it was only half of the soldiers sent out--they must have split up to search a wider net.

Ruby leaned forward and sped toward one of the Paladins.

Weiss sat up in Ruby’s arms. “Ready?”

“Ready!” Ruby yelled.

Speeding up to the side of one of the mechs, Ruby spun around and using the momentum threw Weiss up at the piloted robot. Using a glyph to stabilize herself, Weiss grabbed onto the back of its waist.

Getting a solid grip with one hand, Weiss leaned back and pointed her rapier toward Ruby with the other. A glyph appeared behind her, launching her like a bullet at the other Paladin mech. Ruby aimed low for its leg joint, and her speed combined with Weiss’s glyphs busted her right through the machinery disabling it and sending it crashing sideways into the snow.

Ruby slid to a stop and turned to launch herself back at Weiss when she was blindsided by another Paladin. The automated Paladin burst into view and slammed into Ruby, tackling her and sending them tumbling back toward the settlement as the mech Weiss was holding onto marched forward.

“Ruby!” Weiss reached out as they disappeared out of sight. “Damn.”

Weiss pulled herself up and started climbing up the mech. Balancing on top as its heavy footsteps tried to throw her off with every move, Weiss stabbed Myrtenaster into the top of the cockpit and froze the front window until it shattered.

The pilot yelled and shielded his face. Before he could see what was attacking him, Weiss reached down and threw him out of the mech, sending him tumbling into the snow behind the marching robot.

Weiss jumped into the pilot seat and looked over the controls. “Doesn’t look too complicated,” she said.

A voice over the Atlas military channel spoke through the mech’s coms.  _ “Commander, we found some of the escaped Faunus, we’re corning them as we speak.” _

Weiss looked on the hub of the mech, the location of the other troops was less than half a mile north. If she hurried, she might be able to get there in time.

“Sorry, Ruby,” Weiss said as she grabbed the control and pushed forward, running through the Atlas soldiers tossing them to the sides like bowling pins. A few managed to recover and fired off some shots as she ran past. Weiss pulled the controls to the arm and moved it to shield the blasted open cockpit as she turned the mech north towards the Faunus evacuees. 

  
  


The officer’s boots crunched the snow under his foot as he walked through a row of his troops, humans in the front and robots supporting in the back. He crossed his hands behind his back and looked at the group of a couple dozen Faunus they’d caught fleeing from them, now cornered on a dirt road a couple miles outside of the settlement.

The Faunus farmers, whose only combat experience was fighting off a stray Grimm as a group, were huddled together wearing coats and cloaks. One of the children clung to his mother as his mother turned his head away from the row of Dust rifles, all while tears filled her eyes as she couldn’t look away from the inevitable. Two fox Faunus stood in front of the group with their arms out, ready to strike back or manage to shield the defenseless Faunus if Atlas opened fire.

Not that two bodies could do much to stop a firing squad.

The officer put a hand up to his earpiece and listened to the orders from the general. With an expressionless face, he nodded to the soldiers at the front line, who lifted their rifles in unison.

Before he could give the order to fire, the sound of a falling tree disturbed the tense air. The troops looked around as the ground shook for a moment, something was moving towards them in the forest, ripping apart the terrain in its path. The two fox Faunus lowered the guard for a moment and looked to the side as the ground shook with the sound of metal and machinery clanking, getting louder with every stomp.

The trees at the side of the road were ripped off their roots as a Paladin mech leaped out of the forest and landed in the road between the soldiers and the Faunus. With a burst of energy from the landing, the snow in the road erupted up like a firework showing around the mech, cascading over the Atlas soldiers and knocking the daily front line back in a wave of powder.

The officer shielded his eyes and stared at the mech facing them. The cockpit was blown off, and in the pilot seat was Weiss Schnee clinging onto the controls as the force of the landing swung her to the side as the mech started to lean over..

Pushing her body weight to the side of the controls, she stabilized the mech and both feet planted into the snow, slamming her to the other side of the cockpit, barely holding on as her mech completely blocked the Faunus from gunfire.

Weiss glared back at the officer’s wide eyes and flicked the switch for the rockets.

“Down!” the officer yelled as the battalion dropped to the ground.

A Dust rocket flew out of the side of the mech, dead center at the group of Atlesian Knight robots at the back of the battalion, engulfing them in fire and sending shredded heated metal limbs and parts scattering over the Atlas soldiers.

Two shots rang off the metal armor a foot away from the cockpit, some of the soldiers had recovered and were started to fire on Weiss. Weiss turned the controls, lurching forward as the mech’s arm swung and swatted four of the soldiers flying off the road into the forest behind them. The jerk flung Weiss forward, out of the seat and over the controls, her grip saving her from flying out of the cockpit before she pulled herself back inside and fell into the seat.

“Open fire!”

Weiss yanked back the controls, and both mech arms pulled up and shielded the exposed cockpit from a flurry of bullets, which exploded against the armored limbs of the robot.

“The leg! Pull it down!” the officer barked. 

The soldiers all aimed for the right leg joint. Bullets riddled it until the knee buckled. One of the soldiers pulled out an RPG and fired, destroying the leg.

Weiss was thrown around the cockpit as she fell to the right near horizontally.

“Damn it.” Weiss leaped out of her seat and climbed out of the cockpit and launched herself with a glyph up into the air.

The mech crashed against the snowbank on the side of the road as Weiss crouched landed where it once stood, with Myrtenaster held at her side.

She raised her head as a glyph started to spin around her and locked eyes with the Atlas soldiers. They moved at her and all fired their weapons.

The Albain brothers turned and pushed the Faunus down and covered them with their bodies, trying to shield them as best they could.

Weiss stabbed her rapier into her glyph. A wall of snow and ice erupted between her and the troops’ fire, bisecting the road, and taking all the damage.

Fennec looked back at the wall and Weiss, gritting her teeth and pushing her semblance to the limit to keep the glyph up, and throwing every ounce of Dust in the clip into the summoned elemental shield.

“What are you waiting for?!” Weiss screamed behind her over the gunfire pelting the wall. “ _ Go! _ ”

“Our thanks,” Corsac called back as he and his brother ushered the group of Faunus into the woods and away from the battle.

As soon as they disappeared from view, the ice wall started to crack. The wall trembled on the verge of shattering as a stray bullet pierced the wall and flew over Weiss’s head. Weiss pulled her sword out of the snow, threw out a new glyph in front of her as she spun her cartridge to a new Dust cartridge and sent out a wave of fire that destroyed the wall in front of her, exploding it out over the troops with an avalanche that buried the whole front line.

Pushing a chunk of ice off of himself, the officer climbed to his feet with his few remaining soldiers. He coughed as he looked up at the path of destruction just in time to see Weiss rushing forward and slashing up with her weapon, ripping his Aura in half as he was thrown up into the air above her.

Weiss turned and threw another glyph that blasted three soldiers flipping backward down the road, headfirst into the snow. Weiss kicked another soldier within her range that flew back and knocked down four other troops like a row of bowling pins.

Weiss spun around, the only figure left standing--then the officer finally fell against the road, his Aura shattering on contact as he twitched on the hard ground.

Putting her hands on her knees, Weiss gasped for breath. The cold air was burning her lungs, exhausted from soloing an entire battalion.

_ I can’t… I can’t think about how tired I am right now, _ she thought between gasps.

Weiss turned and looked over her shoulder, up above the trees, she could barely see the top of the settlement walls on the hill in the distance.

She laughed to herself. “Never a moment's rests with these guys.”

Weiss stood up straight and started running back up the hill through ankle deep snow.

_ Please hold on… Ruby! _

 

* * *

 

“We lost all contact with the detachment,” the communication officer said.

“Damn it!’ Ironwood hit his fist against the council, cracking the screen.

“The last report said that is was the Rose and Schnee girls.”

“And they took out  _ all  _ of them?”

“Um… yes?”

Ironwood glared over his shoulder at Ozpin, standing at the back of the bridge.  _ Did he have to create this competent of a team? _ he thought.  _ One of the worst collection of student troublemakers he’d ever seen. The Faunus and The Bandit’s daughter should have been enough to have him keep an eye on this group from the start. _

He looked around the bridge full of officers calling other officers trying to figure out who was where, what that explosion was, what the hell was going on inside the settlement. Total chaos. Even that Amber woman was missing, no sign of her anywhere on the ship, having left sometime after the attack on the gate.

“Alright then." He pulled out his revolver and loaded it with high caliber Dust rounds. “I’ll do it myself,” Ironwood said as he started to walk off the bridge.

“What is this, Ironwood?” Ozpin called after him.

Ironwood turned at the bridge entrance and glared at his friend.

“This isn’t just a raid on a White Fang base, and from what I’m seeing, I can guess that  _ all _ the missions Atlas has been conducting the last week haven't been either."

Ironwood sighed and frowned. “It’s what you never could do, Oz.” 

Ozpin moved his cane forward and stepped toward Ironwood. “I do what I do to protect people. I try to get ahead of it and if I have to get my hands dirty, I will. But this crosses the line, Ironwood.”

“That attitude is why you will always fail, Oz,” Ironwood said, his voice now catching the attention of the other officers on the bridge. “You never could make that final push.”

“Which was?”

“Order requires us to take out the chaotic element disrupting it,” Ironwood said as he held out his mechanical right arm. “The war between Faunus and humans never ended, and the conflict will never be peacefully resolved. The Grimm will get the better of us in a moment of weakness and kill us all. Again. I’m doing the right thing for Remnant and wiping them out.” He closed his fingers into a fist. “Take out the Faunus, no more war. Order… my friend.”

Ozpin stared back at him. He gritted his teeth, like he’d expected the answer, but was still horrified to hear it. “You’re insane.”

“I’m just solving a problem no one else will,” Ironwood said. He turned and walked off the bridge.

Descending down the landing ramp of his ship, Ironwood’s coat flapped in the wind behind him, like the wings of a falcon diving on its prey. He looked forward, a stare as cold as his homeland and slowly walked toward the destroyed gate of the settlement.

 

* * *

 

Running to the other side of the street, Neo clubbed the rifle out of the trooper’s hands before throwing him over her shoulder, sprawling him into the slushy road. Behind her, Roman smacked another one with the end of his cane before turning and firing a Dust bolt, blasting two more flying into a shop window. Neo cartwheeled between two more troops and smashed their heads together before clubbing another one with her umbrella and throat punching the last one and sending him onto the street with the others. Neo turned, smacked him with the umbrella to finish him off and sashayed back to her partner. 

After they tied up and stashed the unconscious bodies behind some nearby boxes, Roman caught his breath and whacked his cane against his palm. “This is easier than I thought!”

_ “I’ll set up a new set of glass clones to bait the next group when they come by,” _ Neo signed.

“Begin again from scene one.” Roman clapped his hands and turned to walk back to their hiding spot in the alley.

As Neo started project her Aura out to set up another illusion of them out in the open, a gunshot shattered the street.

“Hnng,” Roman slumped against the wall, bullet wound in the shoulder. He grunted and gasped in pain, “Fuck.”

Neo turned to the entrance of the street--two of the Hunters-in-training, Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren, were walking up to them. Ren already had his weapon out and was pointing it at Roman, ready to shoot him a second time.

Sliding in front of Roman, Neo faced the two hunters. She stepped towards them, not paying attention to the slippery road, and her leg twisted.

Pain shot up her spine, her leg suddenly feeling brittle, searing with every ounce of weight put on it.

All her acrobats during the last hour of fighting, even with her Aura keeping her going and healing her, she needed much more time to recover before she could pretend to be back at 100%. She looked back up at the two Hunters, masking her pain with a scowl.

Nora spun her hammer and slammed it into the asphalt. “Hey,” she said as she sneered. “We’re here to give you some feedback on your work in Vale.”

 

* * *

 

Raven pressed herself up against the hallway wallpaper and gasped for breath. She tried to keep herself quiet, but that Nikos kid was fast. Looking up and down the hallway, Raven listened for the Hunter-in-training. They’d fought on and off again as she pursued Raven through several buildings in the settlement, and now the back rooms of this one were silent.

_ Of course she can also hide her presence, _ Raven thought.  _ It’s always something, isn’t it? _

Stepping along the wall, Raven moved to the corner of the hall to pear around the corner, only for a spearhead to burst out of the wall, lodging itself an inch away from Raven's face.

Raven rolled back down the hallway to dodge, her mask falling off her face and bounced away from her.

The spear was pulled out of the wall from the other side, and Nikos ran around the corner right for Raven. Raven turned and leaped through a nearby doorway in full sprint.

Pushing open the double doors, Raven ran into the main hall of the saloon near the west wall of the settlement. A bar, some tables and chairs, even a high ceiling. Literally no place to hide, sneak attacks now out of the question.

Nikos burst into the room behind her legs first. Raven managed to turn and block the kick and push her off, Pyrrha landed effortlessly in a crouched position and leaped with her spear forward.

Raven managed to deflect the weapon with her katana and tried to counter-attack, only for Niko's to block with her shield.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Pyrrha tossed her spear out to the side, catching the end of the pole and swung it toward Raven.

Raven stepped back; the tip of the spear grazed the Aura at her throat.

_ She’s good,  _ Raven thought as she jumped back to create even more distance.

Pyrrha charged forward with a flurry of stabs and swings, putting the pressure of Raven, forcing her to defend again while stepping backward.

_ But I’ve seen your tournaments, kid, _ Raven thought.  _ You’ve been on TV too much. _

As Pyrrha stabbed forward, Raven changed her style and blocked down, sending the spear stabbing into the wooden floorboard. Before Pyrrha could let go of the weapon and get into a defensive stance, Raven slashed up, taking off a chunk of Pyrrha’s Aura.

Pyrrha staggered back away from her weapon. Raven moved in and slashed across her Aura again.

Managing to dodge the next slash, Pyrrha moved to Raven’s left, right where she wanted her.

As Raven slashed her sword up again, Raven kept it in her right hand and lunged her left forward, grabbing Pyrrha by the throat, and using the momentum of the slash, threw Pyrrha up and slammed her back against the floor.

Raven boosted her Aura into her hand, sending a light Aura blast into her opponent, shattering the floorboards under the girl. Pyrrha gasped for air as the blast ripped through her.

Raven ripped off Pyrrha’s shield and then straddled her before Pyrrha could try to reach for her weapon or escape. She raised her katana high above the girl and stabbed down.

A sharp crackle of energy sparked between them as the katana bounced off.

Raven lifted the red katana and stabbed down again.

Pyrrha’s Aura chipped across her face, still repelling the katana.

Raven stabbed again.

A crack appeared in the Aura covering Pyrrha’s face.

Raven thrust the blade down again--

 

* * *

 

Pyrrha’s eyes widened as the katana stabbed down at her. The blade sunk into her Aura, an inch away from skewering her skull. In only a few moments, Pyrrha had lost all the momentum of the fight as was helpless, trapped against the ground and with every passing second, losing more of the shield keeping her alive. Every time she tried to think, desperately strategize of escape, Pyrrha could only focus on the red glowing katana blade. She could feel every hit ripping into her Aura, feel every deflection weaker than the last.

The red-eyed woman stabbed again.

_ What is this? _

The sound of her Aura’s energy keeping the sword at bay rang through the hall like the ticking of a clock as the red-eyed woman stabbed her again.

_ What am I feeling? _

The red-eyed woman lodged her sword in Pyrrha’s Aura again.

Keeping her own Aura focused in front of her face was more exhausting than the previous fight. 

The red-eyes stared down at her as she lifted her arms to stab once again.

  
  


“Again,” Pyrrha’s instructor yelled.

Pyrrha got back up, only a child, and repeated the set of punches against the trainer's boxing mitt, two past her previous record. Her eyes were unfocused as she moved through the motions on muscle memory alone, barely keeping her legs from collapsing.

“Again.”

Pyrrha walked onto the training arena at the best Primary combat school in Mistral. Another sparring match against her a professor, getting ready for her first tournament. A minute into the match, the teacher got a hit in across the back of Pyrrha’s Aura, and she fell against the mat.

“Again!”

And then she was back in the funeral hall. The adult Hunters around her’s mumbling of what a hero the unknown body was. Pyrrha was unable to look away from the carefully disguised shredded remains.

_ Oh… that again. _

From the beginning of her training to her time at the Academy, the one constant in it all was her duty and the inevitability that it would remain with her until her final moments.

_ I won the tournaments, I got into the school’s I wanted, and I even made it to a mission. And now it’s coming to an end. _

_ Everything happened exactly as I knew it would. _

Pyrrha is sitting in an outdoor table at a cafe in Vale. Nora and Jaune are messing around in the seats next to her, comparing their decks in a card game they’d gotten into recently, arguing about how unfair the current meta was. Ren chuckles at their light-hearted banter, a smile that he only rarely shows in private around Nora, and now, around the rest of his team as well. The drinks come, and all conversation is forgotten as Nora smiles and helps take them while thanking the waiter. Nora passes a drink to Pyrrha. She stares into it and then back up at her three teammates.

_ Almost everything… _

  
  


Her Aura was stabbed again, and Pyrrha snapped back to the present.

She could feel it, one more hit and she was done. No more Aura, no more shield, and then the red-eyed woman will kill her.

Pyrrha closed her eyes.

_ I knew this would happen. It was always going to happen… _

The red-eyed woman raised her arms up--

_ But I… I-- _

\--and slammed the sword down.

_ I want to live! _

Pyrrha reached her arm out.

The red-eyed woman flew back, dragged by her metal sheath. Halfway across the hall, she managed to slice off the straps and slid to a stop as the sheath slammed into the wall behind her. She climbed to her feet and looked up.

Pyrrha was already standing, her Aura crackled on the breaking point, but it was holding together, it glowed as she activated her Semblance and shook the room. Pipes in the walls, silverware, started to vibrate and levitate toward her figure.

“I have people waiting for me,” Pyrrha whispered.

_ When I’m with them, the future doesn’t have to scare me anymore. _

Pyrrha lifted her head as energy swelled and shot out with a ripple around her. “I’m  _ not _ going to die here!”

 

* * *

 

Ruby sped out of the forest, skidding between two pine trees before blasting back toward the settlement.  The Advanced Paladin broke through the trees right behind her, ripping both pine trees along with it and flinging them forward. Ruby dodged and weaved between the two trunks slamming into the snow around her as she sped forward out of the way of the bark and needles exploding around her. A trail of snow burst up mixed in with the rose petals and she raced forward.

Ruby turned and shot off a few rounds from her sniper rifle, but the bullets bounced off the mech’s armor, barely even dinting them.

_ Ironwood wasn’t kidding when he said these new Paladins were anti-Hunter models, _ she thought and focused back on running.

Ruby sped up to the east wall of the settlement when the Paladin caught up

It extended its mechanized arm and slammed down at her.

Folding out Crescent Rose, Ruby blocked, sparks shooting off the metal on metal clash. She dodged down while folding back up her weapon and sped away along the wall of the settlement.

A ripping sound followed her. Ruby looked over her shoulder to see the Paladin still pursuing her, dragging against the wall and scraping wood and metal as it bore down at her.

Losing her footing before she managed to look back to where she was going, Ruby slipped on the snow and hit the side of the wall. She stumbled and zoomed to the side out into the open field, right in time for the mech to punch in her original path.

Chasing after her, the mech fired its minigun. A hail of bulleted covered Ruby. She dodged and weaved through the storm, and zagged to the left, only to get hit by three shots directly.

Ruby rolled across the field, hitting the ground and bouncing before she slid across the snow and came to a stop.

_ Shit.  _ Ruby ran like sonic boom right back at the mech. She was using far too much of her Semblance for this fight, and there was a lot more fighting to do.

Faster than the bullets could catch up to her, Ruby sped up to the mech. She spun around and folded out her giant scythe and slashed at the Paladin’s leg.

She clashed against the mech and bounced off, the mech ringing like a giant bell.

Ruby was flung back. Getting a glance in, Ruby saw the leg-joint armor was damaged, and some vital machinery were exposed, but the attack wasn’t enough to bring it down.

The Paladin turned toward her as she zoomed toward the wall to escape and panels opened up on its shoulders, revealing two packed launchers.

_ Missiles! _

The Paladin crouched as a dozen rockets launched out after Ruby. She increased her speed along the wall as they all crashed right behind her. A line of yellow exploding fire trailed Ruby, the wave of heat and rubble outrunning her as the ground shattered and she tumbled as the wall collapsed around her.

Smoke billowed where the eastern wall once stood. Smoldering logs and chunks of heated concrete and metal scattered the line of craters. Ruby coughed and looked around. The smoke surrounding her made it impossible to see more than a couple yards in any direction. Ruby slowly pulled herself out of the pile of rubble, catching her breath, she only needed a moment to--

The Mech burst out of the smoke right above Ruby.

Ruby barely managed to block the first strike with her scythe. She tried to counterattack and slash under its arm, but it was faster.

It reared its arm back before punching it forward.

The crushing blow impacted, and Ruby was flung limply into the smoke.

Like a ragdoll, Ruby tumbled through the ash. Crescent Rose flew out of her grip and bounced along the rough scorched ground with her. With a crack, both slammed against a large concrete slab, Ruby’s back hit first before her neck reared back and smacked the back of her head against the wall, breaking her flight.

Ruby’s body slumped onto the ground as her weapon clattered against a rock next to her. 

The cloke lay still for a moment until Ruby’s hand twitched. Wincing in pain, Ruby tried to breathe but her lungs and eyes burnt from all the smoke. Moving was hard. She tried to push herself up but collapsed back against the ground.

Ruby looked up, Crescent Rose was lying just thin reach. She reached out to grab it, that simple action…

Crack.

Ruby froze. She could feel it. The Aura was covered in cracks, like any further moment and it would slip right off her and scatter across the ground.

She inhaled sharply. Very slowly, Ruby crawled across the ground and picked up her weapon--it was heavier than it should have been--carefully she dragged herself behind the concrete slab to hide and sat against it.

The cracks covered Ruby’s body. The simple act of breathing now caused it to spread. It felt like it was crumbling to dust on her.

_ Don’t break,  _ Ruby pleaded to herself.  _ Don’t break. Please, Don’t… _

One more breath was all it took, and Ruby’s Aura shattered.

“Shit!” Ruby gasped. “Shit.”

Ruby could feel the cold wind on her face through her hair, feel the hot gravel clenched in her fist. Ruby hit her head back against her slab of concrete.

“No. Please, no.”

A loud mechanical footstep dug into the earth behind her.

Ruby’s eyes widened.  She peered around the edge of her cover. The Paladin was barely visible through the smoke, yards away, making sweeps of the designated area, slowly getting closer and closer to where she was hiding, defenseless.

 

* * *

 

Raven leaped over a table as one of the metal ceiling beams stabbed through it and slammed into the floor.

Gritting her teeth, Pyrrha swiped her arm through the air, and three pipes burst out of the wall at Raven. She managed to slide out of the way of the first two striking at her like snakes and deflected the third one with her katana as she escaped their range.

Pyrrha reached behind her; her spear flew, returning to her as she leaped up and stabbed down at Raven.

Raven blocked, her Dust katana blade chipped and she skidded backward out of Pyrrha’s range.

Then she looked up.

All the metal lying around the room, the pipes from the will, a few ceiling beams, tables, and barstools, were all hovering above her head.

Pyrrha raised her hand, clenched her fist and threw it down.

Raven dove to the side as all the metal stabbed into the floorboards where she had just been standing. The floor shattered as shreds of wood and metal scattered around the room.

Raven quickly got to her feet. Nikos entire fighting style had changed. It was raw, desperate. Before she was following orders, keeping to the forms that had been trained into her like second nature, but now she’d been pushed to preservation. Raven had been trying to go easy on the kid and just chip away at her Aura to take her out of the fight, but if this kept up, she might have to resort to harsher, potentially lethal measures.

“My friends and I are going to get out of here,” Pyrrha gasped.

_ She’s exhausted, _ Raven thought. It was taking everything she had to keep her Semblance up without her Aura shattering.

The shards of metal in the room started to spin around Pyrrha like a blender, protecting her from Raven getting in the one hit she needed to end the fight. The nearby bar shredded from the spinning metal and the floor at her feet chipped as the metal ripped away at it.

“We’re going to live!”

Pyrrha charged Raven.

Raven ducked and waved between the oncoming shrapnel flying around her. Pyrrha forced her into close range. She was too erratic, too open, too easy. Raven had to end this now, or she’d be shredded with her Aura. “Sorry, kid,” Raven whispered, hoping the katana strike wouldn’t cut down the girl as her Aura shattered.

A crack echoed through the hall over the swarm of metal.

Pyrrha fell limply at Raven’s feet, long before either could attacked.

All the metal in the room clattered against the ground, scattering around the girl who’s Aura had just been shattered. Above her, where Pyrrha once stood, was Amber, her staff out, having just hit Pyrrha in the back of the head, ending the fight.

Raven caught her breath and bent down to make sure Pyrrha was alive: Unconscious but breathing.

Amber slowly turned and walked across the room.

Raven scooped Pyrrha up and carried her over to the double doors to the back rooms and set her in the hallway. Whatever this was, Raven didn’t want to let an unconscious kid be in the middle of it. Standing up in the doorway, Raven turned and faced Amber.

Amber walked up to the wall across from Raven and pulled the metal sheath that Raven cut off earlier in the fight out of the wall. She lifted it with one arm and looked over her shoulder at Raven.

“I’m your opponent,” Amber said. She tossed Raven the sheath.

Raven caught it and reattached it to her belt.

“Fine with me,” she said as her damaged Dust katana popped out of the handle and she replaced the blade.

Amber spun her staff as a blade and barrel transformed out of the top.

“For years, I’ve felt empty. I lost my purpose. But I finally found a way to peace.” Amber’s eyes flared, and her Aura burst into flames. “By finishing my mission.”

Like reflections of the other, Raven and Amber simultaneously charged, weapons raised, and clashed in the center of the hall.

The katana and the staff clashed, striking and defending with a blinding swirl of sparks.

Amber gritted her teeth, forcing down the pain she was feeling. She widened her eyes and pushed through it, used it to keep her going.

Raven pushed forward; her katana glowed red as she swiped up at the staff, slicing off the bladed end and sending it spinning up in the air.

Amber dropped the pole and caught the bladed end and slashed back without hesitation.

Raven blocked the next several strikes. She knew she couldn’t use her Semblance to escape. The closest person she’d linked with was Fennec, no one inside the settlement. She couldn’t abandon them. Couldn’t abandon Yang. Not again.

Amber tsked and put the blade on her belt before turning up the heat. Her Aura exploded with fire, and Raven jumped back to avoid getting roasted.

Pooling fire into her palms, Amber turned them around and released an Aura blast with both hands, blasting herself forward at Raven like a rocket and slamming her into a wall.

Her Aura fried, it felt like it was boiling. She managed to kick Amber off of her and leaped to the side, recovering between Amber and the front of the saloon.

Amber turned toward Raven, the fire in her hands roared as they whipped through the air. She put her hands together. Her Aura started to condense between her palms as the fire started to glow even brighter as a high pitched shriek filled the hall from the center of the glowing fireball.

Raven lifted her blade, not sure what to expect from the next attack.

Amber yelled as she thrust her hands toward Raven. The compressed Aura ripped forward like a beam of fire.

Raven barely leaped out of the way as the beam blasted apart the floor underneath it. It struck the front wall of the saloon, the wood glowed molten orange before incinerating like paper and exploding as the beam carried on outside before dissipating.

Raven looked up as snow blew into her hair. She turned and glanced at the path of destruction.

The entire front of the saloon and the roof over it was gone. A charred path crossed the road below where the beam had blasted up into the air. And across it from the saloon, the top half of the settlement wall outside had been erased along with everything else in the beam’s path.

“Oh my god,” Raven gasped.

“That was half my Aura,” Amber said.

Raven turned back. Amber was glowing orange, the heat levitating her nearly a foot into the air. She raised out her arms, a bonfire spread across them and her shoulders as she stared down at Raven.

Before that power could be unleashed, Raven lifted her Dust sheath and fired off several white Dust blades out of her sheath like a minigun.

Amber floated to the side to dodge a few ice projectiles, swiping her arm to deflect another but was still pierced by a lucky shot. Ice spread across her Aura and negated her Semblance.

Her feet returned to the ground as she tried to shake off the ice spreading across her Aura.

Raven charged in, her katana glowed red like a flare as the Dust activated. She lifted her blade and struck down.

Amber reached forward as her Aura suddenly combusted in her palms as she grabbed the red blade. Crimson energy burst in her hand as she clenched her fist and twisted, shattering the katana.

Raven's eyes widened as the shards of Dust fell around her and the handle, destroying what should have been the final strike.

Amber screamed as her body was engulfed in fire once again, now burning bright white as she poured everything she had left into her Semblance. The fire screamed as it exploded out of her legs and launched Amber at Raven, tackling her and launching them forward, taking off into the air as they flew out of the saloon.

Mid-air through their flight over the street, Amber grabbed Raven by the neck and spun around, tossing her even further forward at the settlement wall. Raven bounced off the charred edge of the hole Amber had blasted apart earlier and flew outside the walls, crashing onto the edge of the snow covered hill outside.

Raven groaned as she slid into place, her back against the ground and her arms spread out.

She opened her eyes.

Amber was falling through the air above her. She lifted her firsts in the air. Yellow fire engulfed them as she reached back and blasted herself directly at Raven.

Raven didn’t even have the strength left to lift an arm to shield herself as Amber slammed down on her with an inferno. The snow around the impact burst up in a steam cloud like a geyser.

Raven’s Aura evaporated with it, and everything went black.

 

* * *

 

Amber stood on top of the hill just outside of the settlement as the could of steam dissipated. She had no Aura or Semblance left to cover her, but the unconscious body of Raven Branwen was laid out at her feet. Branwen's outfit was singed by Amber's final attack, but she didn't appear permanently injured after her Aura shattered. Amber had used the last of her’s for that final attack, but she was still standing. She won.

The wind crossed the hill around her. Her hair blew across the scar on her face, her collar and clothes whipping against her body as she stood motionless.

Amber reached back and pulled the blade from her belt and looked down at Raven’s defenseless body.

She breathed in sharply... finally being here knocking the wind out of her.

Spinning the blade in her hand, Amber, for the first time in what felt like her entire existence, relaxed her shoulders and exhaled slowly.

Another gust of wind passed over her.

Amber tossed the spearhead into the snow, and walked away, heading down the hill into the evergreen forest below and away from the settlement.

_ If even that Rose girl could do it, then maybe I can find my own path as well. _

Amber walked through the trees and disappeared into the unknown.


	31. The Battle of Snowdale--Part 2

Staggered breath filled the darkness. Her shaking exhale was only drowned out by the repeating heartbeat thundering through her chest, feeling like she could cough out her heart at any second.

Ruby opened her eyes. The smoke covered craters and rubble still surrounded her. She leaned against the concrete slab--the only protection she had left--as the mechanical footsteps of the advanced Paladin mech, just out of sight behind her, snapped through some charred logs like they were twigs as it continued its hunt.

Ringing filled Ruby’s ears. The smoke was getting to her; she wished that was only it, but her Aura-less body was starting to shake.

Her perception kept switching between her bombed-out surroundings and a cliffside in the Emerald Forest, her body collapsed against the grass, blood pooling under her as an airship took off, leaving her for dead.

_Just get through it. I got through it back then didn’t I? Of course, I had time to recover, and make a plan… oh boy._

Ruby laughed at herself in a panic. How pathetic, then again, she kept ending up in the same situation.

The world around her blurred as her eyes watered from the stinging smoke. Through the haze, she saw the cafeteria back at Beacon. She charged at Blake, her scythe pulled back ready to tear her down, only for her partner to hit first, shattering Ruby’s Aura and leaving her stumbling forward, exposed in the cold air blowing through the hall, stomach churning as she lowered her scythe and admitted defeat.

A concrete pillar exploded from the mech punching it somewhere behind Ruby. She flinched and tightened her grip on crescent Rose. It stomped away and resumed its search.

Her breathing continued. It echoed around her, almost giving away her position.

Ruby inhaled and closed her eyes.

She couldn’t give up now. It didn’t matter how hopeless it was or if her Aura was broken. It didn’t take Aura for Yang to finally open up about a decade of repressed trauma. It didn’t take Aura for Weiss and Blake to come looking for them long before Ruby could ever bring herself to. They were all so strong, and Ruby was done pretending like she was any different.

Ruby exhaled and opened her eyes. The stinging was gone, and she could see the world around her with clarity.

_Aura,_ she laughed to herself, _who needs it? Aura’s bullshit. Yeah!_ Obviously lying to herself, but she wasn’t out of this fight. Not yet!

Ruby looked at her ammo belt and clips. She had a dozen rounds left, five of which were red explosive Dust. Peeking around the corner of her cover, Ruby spotted some damage in the mech's armor from her attack a few minutes ago, exposing the leg. It limped as it stomped through the rubble looking for her.

She looked down at the explosive rounds in her hand. _Okay,_ she thought, _just shooting at it will get me killed before I hit it enough to do any real damage._ She pulled out her Scroll and hit the edge against the concrete, breaking open the case. _I can do this!_

Rigging the wires while setting a clock on the screen, Ruby carefully removed the Dust from four of the explosive rounds, putting the last one on her belt--just in case--and implanted them inside the Scroll. If she remembered her training with Dust right, the trace amounts in the wiring should spark against the red Dust when activated, conjuring an explosive she didn't want to be anywhere near once the timer rang.

Ruby clicked the screen and set the timer. She typed: one-zero-zero, and hovered her finger over the start, and quickly yanked it away from the screen, almost too caught up in the moment. Probably should come up with a proper plan first.

_Now how to get in close,_ Ruby though as she peaked around the corner again. _What’s the best way to toss this thing._

The mech was gone.

Out of the corner of her eye, Ruby saw something flying at her like a heat-seeking hammer. Ruby leaped out from behind the concrete slab at the last second as the robot’s arm crushed through it like a pile of blocks, slamming into the ground where she was sitting a moment ago. Concrete exploded around Ruby as she rolled to the bottom of a nearby crater.

Ruby got up and started running as fast as she could from the mech. Looking over her shoulder as it turned to face her, the lights over its optical cameras flashed red. Ruby glanced down at the scroll and pressed the start button. One minute.

The robot dashed at her, almost instantly caught up with her and swung another arm down. Ruby rolled under the mech and looked for the best place to attach the scroll, but one of the legs lifted up and slammed down at Ruby, who barely rolled out of the way as it crushed into the ground next to her.

Scrambling to her feet, Ruby took a strap out of a poach on her belt and quickly wrapped it around the damaged leg and the hastily built bomb. She pulled it tight, attaching the explosive. Forty-one seconds.

Ruby turned to start running out from underneath when the mech above her spun around, facing her. Its left arm popped out four razer claws and swiped at Ruby. She managed to outrun the swing, but not enough that the end of her cloak wasn’t still in range.

The claws dug into the red fabric, yanking Ruby back. As she was dragged along the ground, gravel tore into her skin as she frantically kicked her boots, trying to slow herself down as the machine-powered arm pulled her back like a doll on a string.

The razors finally ripped through the tough fabric as the other arm swung down, punching at her right as she was able to pull forward and only get grazed by the metal sent to crush her. Ruby turned and whipped Crescent Rose off her back and lifted it, the end of the barrel less than two feet away from the optical cameras of the automated mech, and fired.

The mech reeled back, one of its red eyes shattered and groaned as it tried to re-caliber its optical scanners. Ruby ran, her cloak still barely managed to attach to one of her shoulders like a half cape trailing behind her.

One last look at the timer behind her: Fourteen seconds.

Ruby scrambled into a smoke cloud for cover, turned left and slid down a crater, diving behind a log at the bottom and slammed her hands over her ears to prepare for the explosion… which never came.

Removing her hands from her ears, Ruby could hear the beeping of her Scroll’s alarm ringing somewhere in the smoke, but no ignition.

“Shit!”

Ruby climbed to the top of the crater. The mech was searching the area, destroying the last few possible chunks of rubble that Ruby could use as cover as it swung madly trying to find her. As soon as Ruby moved from her current position, it would spot her and run her down.

Ruby unfolded Crescent Rose. It was heavy, stabilizing it or preparing for the recoil for even a medium distance shot without Aura would be a challenge, it had been so long since she fired this thing without that assistance. Ruby inhaled, and softly exhaled, before loading a normal round into the chamber.

_Here we go._

Ruby lifted her scythe as she rose up from behind cover; she stabbed the blade into the ground to stabilize the barrel.

The robot turned at the sound and moved its injured leg forward, right into view of Ruby’s scope.

Fire!

Ruby barely held on through the recoil. It felt like her arms cracked as she put all her weight and more into keeping the weapon from flying up out of the ground.

The sniper round impacted the beeping scroll

BOOM!

The mech blasted sideways, armor flying off it in shreds as it collapsed against the ground.

The fire and smoke cleared. Metal shuttered as the machine was trying to right itself up, despite one of its legs mangled, nearby blasted off in the explosion, and its arm trapped under the body’s weight.

Ruby loaded a new clip and fired, over and over again at the front of the mech, bullets embedding himself into the machinery, and the mech finally shuttered and fell limply with a crash against the scorched dirt.

She sighed and stood up. She heaved Crescent Rose up to her shoulder, heavy but she managed it and slowly walked through the smoke up to the destroyed mech.

It was hard to imagine the smoking hunk of twisted junk in front of her almost killed her like four times in the last ten minutes. Ruby kicked it with her boot, thudding like a metallic hollow drum.

Ruby chuckled--

The mech lurched forward. The remaining eye glowed like a laser as it tried to grab at Ruby with its free arm.

Stumbling back, Ruby fell down as she crawled backward away from the several tons of metal trying to crush her. The motors inside its remains whirred as it glared down at her. It slammed the arm just in front of her and pulled, the machinery in its arm shredding with a wild scream as it tried to fall on her again.

Ruby scrambled to her feet and lifted Crescent Rose high above her head, used all the strength in her body to swing it down and stabbed it through the remaining eye. The blade sunk into the metal, red electricity sparked as a guttural noise deep inside the Dust engine inside choked until it was silent.

The scythe’s blade shrieked as it scrapped out of the mech’s front. Ruby hieved it over her head again. Screaming, she slammed it down like a sledgehammer driving in a stake and stabbed through the front of the mech, crushing it inward.

Any sparking remaining stopped completely as it returned to being a dead heap of totaled metal.

Ruby gripped the pole of her weapon standing up straight as it was embedded into the mech’s body. She slumped against it and gasped for her. Bruises covered her arms and legs, the scrapes stung, bleeding around the sharp gravel that had dug through her skin.

But… she won. She tightened her grip on Crescent Rose, the only thing stopping her from collapsing to the ground, and let out an exhausted, breathy, gasp.

 

* * *

 

The pile of wooden planks and loose bricks shifted as an arm broke through from underneath. Yang coughed as she pushed the heap off herself and sat up while brushing soot off her hair and shoulders. Groaning, she pulled off her scorched and torn up coat and threw it to the side. It didn’t feel like she was unconscious that long, but you probably shouldn’t trust your own judgment after getting hit headfirst by an explosion you accidentally caused.

Yang checked her Aura. It was damaged, but still good for another few fights.

She looked around at the destruction around her. Half of both buildings on the sides of the alley had been blasted apart into a pile. There was no sign of Jaune; the last thing she saw was the blast throwing him out toward the street. The area where he should have landed wasn’t covered in rubble, and he wasn’t lying around, so he either ran off or got picked up by some passing Atlas soldiers drawn by the explosion, long gone by now. And who knew how far away Pyrrha and Raven’s fight had put them either.

Rubbing her forehead, Yang heard metal striking other metal in the distance. Yang climbed to her feet and turned, getting a fix on which direction between the buildings around her that the fighting was coming from. She hopped over the rubble and ran off to investigate.

Arriving at the source, Yang peaked around a corner into another alley to see Neo blocking attacks from Ren and Nora. Roman was slumped against a wall at the side, bleeding from a bullet wound to his shoulder, leaving Neo to fight off both the Hunters-in-training by herself. Neo was trying her best to fight with her usual style, kicks and flips in all, but every time she leaned her full weight on her leg, she hesitated or almost collapsed.

Neo blocked one of Ren’s knives, but he still pushed her back into Nora striking her across the side with her hammer right back into Ren who kicked her back forward. Nora spun Neo around by the arm and trapped her in a headlock.

Yang rushed out from behind the corner and jumped into eh alley.

Before either of her friends could react, she hit a solid punch across Ren’s face, sending him flying back-first into the nearest brick wall.

Using the distraction, Neo ducked out of Nora’s hold and ran forward until she was back to back with Yang. She held her umbrella in front of her as Yang lifted her gauntlet clad fists, the former facing off against Nora gripping her hammer with both hands, and Yang racing Ren, who had stood up and wiped the front of her mouth.

He spun his pistols in his hands before gripping them and holding them blades forward at Yang.

Both Nora and Ren started to circle Neo and Yang counterclockwise, the duo in the center turning still back to back to keep facing both of the attackers.

Neo pulled out her Scroll and typed without breaking her mutual glare with Nora before holding it behind her at Yang. _“You take the red-head.”_

“Right,” Yang said. “Go!”

Neo rushed Ren to keep him on the defensive while Yang charged Nora, her gauntlets springing over her fists. She dodged a hammer swipe and blocked the follow-up swing with one arm, punching her other arm forward to break Nora’s Aura with a shotgun blast, only for her weapon to click: Empty.

Nora grabbed her wrist and pulled Yang forward, locking them together. “You’re defending them?!”

“Long story,” Yang grunted. “Just calm down, and we can talk about this. There’s stuff going on here that Ironwood’s not telling you.”

“I don’t care about Ironwood. They caused a breach, they die!”

Nora let go and dashed back to make some distance. Pulling some lightning Dust from her belt, Nora bit down, crunching it in half with her teeth as lightning conjured out of her mouth as she exhaled. It spread across her Aura and ignited as arcs of electricity sparked off her in arcs. The hammer pulled back, shining with energy and swung horizontally at Yang, barely coming short and shattered the wall next to her. The bricks burst inward while glowing, now supercharged by Nora's Aura.

On the other end of the alley, Neo faced off against Ren. She tried to slip behind him, but her leg seized up mid-movement. Luckily she was able to block one of his Aura punches with her umbrella. Ren channeled his Aura into his other palm and launched it at Neo. Neo pulled out her thin blade and sliced through the wave of energy coming at her. As soon as the energy dissipated, Neo kicked forward with her good leg to get in close.

Ren stabbed at her chest, but as soon as the weapon made contact, her form wobbled like a reflection in water and froze, the Aura glass finished forming and catching Ren’s arm in the glass illusion.

Neo walked out from behind the illusion, looked down at his arm trapped in her chest and held up her Scroll. _“Naughty.”_ She winked and turned toward Yang’s fight.

Yang managed to duck under another lightning strike slammed into the wall next to her. She kicked up, lightning searing off the Aura on her leg, but knocking the hammer out of Nora’s grip, sending it spinning above them until it slammed into the concrete a dozen yards behind her.

Getting back on her feet, Yang swung a haymaker at Neo, hitting her head-on, the lightning burning her Aura on impact.

Nora yelled and responded with an uppercut.

Yang grit her teeth but shook off the hit and punched back, yelling as her fist struck Nora’s shoulder.

Nora hit back, and Yang returned it. Both poured their Aura’s into their fists, amplifying the speed of their attacks, neither bothering on defence anymore as they both unleashed a storm of fists at the other.

“AAAAAARRGHGHHAAA!!!!!”

A dozen punches a second, Nora and Yang poured into the other, each strike strong enough to be the finishing blow of any other fight, both of them holding out, too focused on throwing the next punch to notice the damage they were taking. With every rapid punch to Yang’s Aura, it glowed just a little brighter, fanning the flames around her until it was an inferno matching the energy blasting off Nora.

Yang screamed and upped the speed of her flaming fists. She was now almost getting two punches in for every hit she received. Nora started to lose her footing, stumbling backward as Yang got in three hits to the chest.

Nora gasped for breath as a spark of electricity pulsed around her body as she tried to keep her Aura from breaking. She glared up at Yang, standing several yards in front of her like a wicker man, but also trying to catch her breath faster than her friend could.

“That’s not everything I’ve got!” Nora said as she moved to grab another chunk of lightning Dust from her belt.

Using the opening, Neo dashed into the fight from across the alley and stabbed into Nora’s Aura, getting the blade in an inch before being blasted back by a shock of lightning, sending her tumbling into the gutter.

The hit to Nora’s weakened Aura made her double over, dropping the Dust crystal.

Yards away, Ren finally managed to pull the trigger of his weapon caught in the illusion. The Aura glass exploded around his arm, shredding his own arm’s Aura, as he turned toward the fight across the alley.

Nora tried to bend down to grab the chunk of Dust, but Yang got to her first. She leaped at Nora, almost high enough to clear her and wrapped her legs around Nora’s neck as she slammed into her and spun her upper body around.

Staggering back, Nora tried not to be pulled to the ground by Yang, planting her feet. Yang used the momentum and a push from her fiery Aura to flip herself mid-air, keeping hold of Nora, catapulting her with her and releasing her mid-flip, sending Nora flying toward a concrete wall at the end of the alley.

Nora slammed into the wall upside down. The moment she impacted, Yang landed on both feet and launched herself at Nora before she could fall, fist raised.

Yang’s punch impacted the center of Nora’s body, sending her back against the wall, which cracked like glass.

Nora gasped for air as her Aura shattered with the wall. She fell and slumped against the indented wall unconscious.

“Nora!” Ren called as he rushed Yang. Before she could react, he Aura-palm struck her in the side, blasting her rolling down the edge of the wall.

Neo had gotten back up on her feet and charged at him as best as she could with her thin sword raised. He blocked her first swing, but instead of attacking again, she ducked down and grinned, tossing something toward his chest--the chunk of Dust that Nora had dropped earlier.

Ren’s eyes widened as Neo sliced her blade across his chest and the Dust, the metal sparking and igniting the crystal. A sphere of lightning conjured up against his body, plasma ripping into his Aura like a blender.

Neo shielded her eyes, lowering her arm only to see Ren gripping his weapon as he pushed through the energy as it dissipated. Somehow he was still standing after being the center of a Dust blast, let alone his Aura still functioning.

A moment of hesitation was all he needed to swat away her blade and kick her injured leg, instantly sending her sprawling back onto the ground.

Yang looked up as Ren pointed his postal down at Neo. “Watch out!”

Neo’s eyes widened as Ren’s finger twitched.

Boom.

A Dust bolt flew over Yang’s head and hit Ren in the back, the unexpected attack shattering his Aura, chunks of it fell around Neo as he fell to the side, instantly unconscious.

Yang turned around. Roman was still slumped by the wall, now holding his cane over his leg, smoke from the barrel drifting up like a cigar.

Roman coughed. “Fuck you…”

Neo crawled onto her feet and limped over to Roman and pulled off his jacket so she could treat his wound.

“Oh, I’ve been through worse,” he said, but as soon as she touched near his shoulder, he winced, “Ow, fuck, ow.”

Yang stood up and checked her aura. It’s taken a real beating this time, but she still had a fight left in her, as long as she finished whatever it was quickly.

A couple minutes later, Yang walked back into the alley from recovering a nearby ammo drop, reloading Ember Celica. Neo was finishing up bandaging Roman as she walked up to the pair.

“Oh yeah, Blondie,” Roman said. “Your friend the cat, she’s going after Ironwood.”

“Alone?” Yang said. “I gotta--” She stopped and looked down at the two injured people next to her.  “You guys…”

Neo nodded and gave Yang a thumbs up while wincing through the pain in her leg. _“My Aura’s still up, I should be able to fend off a couple stray Atlas troops,”_ she typed. _“I’ll protect him. Go help your friend.”_

Yang smiled. “Take care of yourselves.”

“When have I not?” Roman said as Neo got back to patching him up.

Yang turned and ran out of the alley toward the south gate.

 

* * *

 

Ironwood’s coat flapped against his back as he walked down the cramped side street deep inside the settlement. With a smooth motion based on muscle memory, Ironwood lifted his revolver and loaded six Dust rounds into the cylinder before swinging it back into the weapon. Almost enough shots to take care of all the trash standing in his way. The cramped buildings of inconsistent build, architecture, and materials all squeezed together on either side of him, lurching above like a closing venus flytrap. Combined with the overcast sky, they cast a dark shadow over him and the street, echoing with his slow rhythmic steps as he continued his hunt.

A gunshot lit up a corner of the shadows as a bullet spun through the air heading right for the back of the general’s head.

Not even slowing down his strike, Ironwood leaned to the side and dodged the path of the bullet, it not even grazing his Aura. He turned sharply and shot back into the shadows, his bullet punched a hole in the wall down the street.

In a different alley, Ironwood spotted a young woman ducking low while aiming her weapon in his direction. He fired another bullet that ripped through her neck, only for her from to dissipate into black smoke. Another figure across the street only a couple yards in front of him started to run at him. He fired, grazing it, revealing it to be another shadow.

As soon as the chamber in his revolver turned, he felt the slash down his spine. A katana-type weapon from behind ripped through the back of his Aura. He glanced over his shoulder to see Blake Belladonna bent low having just delivered the blow, her ears leaned back like a predator in battle.

Ironwood turned and fired his revolver close range, but she had already replaced herself with a shadow. The real Blake dodged to the side and disappeared between two buildings followed closely by two more shots ripping through the air just behind her.

The shells from his weapon dropped and scattered on the ground as Ironwood began his automatic reload.

“Decades ago,” Ironwood called into the shadows surrounding him, “about a year before Ozpin became a headmaster, I was put on a mission to hunt down some radical White Fang hiding out in Atlas. We wanted to crush them before they organized into something more violent; obviously, we didn't finish the job.”

He finished loading his revolver and held it up in his left hand while he opened and closed the fingers on his right, one by one clicking in and out of joint.

“This group didn’t come quietly and put up more of a fight then we were prepared for. One of them even had a Semblance…”

Ironwood fired into the darkness. Nothing.

“They destroyed my arm and damaged half my body beyond repair. Atlas mechanical medicine is a miracle, however, and allows me to continue. It was while I was recovering when I thought back on history, and how my type of injury must have been common during the Great War, how I never experienced war, not really, and how it must be the most evil of humanity’s creations. Humans killing each other for no greater reason than greed. I almost agreed with the planet for creating the Grimm to kill us all. The four Kingdoms was a great experiment, and after the war, we saw the chance for unity and order, but then the Faunus--”

Her boot hitting the ground betrayed her position behind him.

Before her weapon could pierce his Aura gain, Ironwood’s cyborg arm dislocated itself and snapped backward like a  bear trap and grabbed Blake by the throat.

Turning his body as the joints in his arm snapped back into place, Ironwood faced Blake wriggling while trying to escape his grip. He activated his Semblance. The glow around her started to fizzle out as his Aura glowed while it absorbed her’s. The slash wound to his Aura from a minute earlier healed almost instantly as excess energy dripped up off him like plasma.

Blake stabbed between his metal fingers with her machete and managed to pry her neck out of his iron clutch and fell backward to the ground.

Ironwood lifted his left arm and fired his revolver into her chest, the bullet tore through her as she hit the ground as her figure faded immediately and the real Blake scampered to the side. Another shot followed after her, destroying another clone as she dodged out of sight between the dark buildings again.

Slowly inhaling, Ironwood released his Aura into the street. The energy weaved to and from him like an echo as he felt into the shadows around him.

“The world will never find peace with your kind in it,” Ironwood said, finally addressing his opponent. “Your corruption… it was created to strengthen us against the Grimm, only for it to weaken us from the inside.”

Ironwood lifted his arm and aimed his revolver at a nearby brick wall.

“I plan on correcting that.”

Ironwood fired.

The bullet punched through the wall and the Aura of the girl hiding behind it. A little high, only a shoulder shot just above the heart.

Behind the wall, Blake slumped down and gasped for air from the shock. Her Aura flickered on and off while screaming like a static screen, desperately trying to hold itself and her together as blood started to drip down her chest and arm.

Ironwood lifted his revolver up and smirked. Easy prey.

 

* * *

 

Ruby’s jaw trembled as she gasped for another breath. It had been minutes since the final blow, but she was still standing over the corpse of the Paladin mech, supported only by Crescent Rose pierced deep into the totaled mechanical body. Her lone figure stood above the shattered rubble of the once eastern wall of the settlement. The wind had cleared the area of smoke and was whipping her shredded half-cloak up into the air behind her, trying to pull her away like a crimson kite.

Ash and dirt clung to the hair covering her face. The stinging scrapes and bruises covering her body were nothing. She kept telling herself she could move, that she _needed_ to move. If only she could catch her breath. Even without the smoke sticking to her lungs, she couldn’t build up the strength to recover.

The sound of multiple heavy boots running up to her interrupted her next attempt to steady her breathing. Ruby lifted her head, revealing her silver eyes through her parting hair.

Her lone figure was now surrounded by a dozen Atlas soldiers, all training their weapons at her.

Ruby looked at them and laughed to herself before sighing. She didn’t have a chance against all of them, not in this state, but it wasn’t like she had any other choice but to try anyway.

The metal screeched as Ruby slid Crescent Rose out of the mech. She managed to put one foot in front of the other toward the nearest troop before another staggering step as she lifted her weapon horizontally.

Two quick steps forward and she swung, missing by a few feet. Ruby stumbled forward with the swing as the scythe hit the ground, propping her up again.

_Breath,_ Ruby thought. _Please, just breath--_

Bzz-- A taser dust round hit her in the back, and she fell to the ground.

Everything was hazy. The soldiers had moved, only a few were standing next to her while the other discussed their next move. Ruby looked down at her wrists. Huh, handcuffed. At some point, they’d arrested her. When did that happen?

“At least one of them escaped the settlement to go after the detachment going after the escaped Faunus,” one of the soldiers said. “She might have gotten away.”

“I doubt it,” a familiar new voice said.

“Oh, he woke up. How are you feeling? That explosion hit you pretty hard.”

“Was… anyone else there?”

“Not that we saw. Was--”

"No, it's nothing. I was closer, and her Aura is stronger than mine anyway. No way she's hurt," the familiar voice said. "I know these guys from Beacon, they won't leave each other behind.

“Speaking of,” another soldier chimed in, “we probably should try to find your partner, kid. Can you stand?”

“I’m fine. Aura is still functioning and everything. I just need a moment to wake up.” The figure belonging to the voice walked up to Ruby as she glanced up. She saw him clear enough through the haze. Jaune was roughed up, the edges of his armor singed, but still combat ready.

One of the Atas soldiers got a call on his radio. “They want us to investigate a massive Aura reading on the other end of the settlement.”

“Dragging us all over the place, huh?” another soldier said. “Don’t they know we have a prisoner?”

“I’ll keep an eye on her,” Jaune said. “I’d just slow you guys down anyway.”

In less than a minute, the large squad took off, leaving only Jaune standing among the rubble next to Ruby’s collapsed body.

He turned and glanced down at her.

Ruby grinned back up--painfully.

Jaune sighed before crouching down and removed her handcuffs. “You idiot,” he said, activating his Aura. He concentrated on its shape, spreading it over Ruby’s wounds as he started to heal her.

“Crazy way to end a semester, huh?” Ruby mumbled. She looked around. Crescent Rose was lying at least two yards away on the ground.

“Just stay quiet, you’re more hurt than you think.”

A few minutes later, he deactivated his Aura. Ruby could feel most of her cuts and injuries healed up. Not only enough to keep her going for the rest of the day, but strength was back in her limbs. She inhaled a deep breath and--

Ruby turned and kicked Jaune in the chest. He staggered back as Ruby rolled and grabbed Crescent Rose.

As she jumped to her feet, Jaune was up as well, his sword and shield already out as they faced each other.

“You don’t have any Aura left!” Jaune yelled. “Are you crazy?”

“I can’t back down, Jaune,” Ruby said. “Not this fight.”

“There are a hundred Atlas soldiers around here. You can’t win!”

“One fight at a time.”

Jaune laughed and shook his head. He gripped his sword and raised his shield. “Alright. I guess we’re doing this.”

“I’m going to win, Jaune,” Ruby said.

“Not this time.”

Ruby and Jane faced each other, the only two figures among the smoldering field. The wind picked up and ruffled through Jaune’s clothes before it hit Ruby’s cloak. The red piece of fabric finally tore off and flew away up into the sky behind her, lost forever.

Both fighters simultaneously leaned down, their boots crunching the gravel beneath them as they kicked off and ran toward the other. Jaune swung his sword, clashing against Ruby’s own swing. She swiped as Jaune stepped back to dodge her superior range. Ruby swung up, keeping him at a distance where her blade could hit his Aura without him slashing her back.

As Crescent Rose was lifted to the end of the swing, her arms buckled from the weight, forcing her to step back.

Using her second of hesitation, Jaune rushed in. Ruby blocked his next swing and slid back, barely able to keep hold of her weapon from the impact. His strength was at least three times hers with Aura backing him, and he was reacting much faster than she could keep up with.

Ruby swung again, but Jaune parried the scythe to the side while hitting the staff of the weapon, knocking it out of Ruby’s exhausted grip.

Crescent Rose bounced against the ground. Before it could fall again, or Ruby could move to retrieve it, Jaune kicked it spinning a dozen yards away from their duel.

Ruby’s gaze followed her weapon, a moment too late to prepare for Jaune’s next attack. She looked back at her opponent, just as he raised his shield and bashed it across her body, sending her flying before she hit the ground sprawled on her back.

Jaune combined his sword and shield, transforming out into its great sword form and held it just above her chest.

The wind died down, Jaune the only figure left standing.

“Why, Ruby?” Jaune asked.

Ruby looked at the blade pinning her and then at Jaune before hitting her head back against the gravel with a sigh. “Thought I had a chance for a second there.”

“Ruby…”

“I know you, Jaune. You’re a good person. You _know_ why. Do you see any Grimm around here.”

Jaune clenched his jaw.

“This is wrong. I always thought that Hunters, that we did the fighting that people in the settlements couldn’t. That we were supposed to keep them safe. Do you think that the people here, who used to be here, are safe? Ironwood did that. A Hunter did that! And I don’t care if I have to turn my back on the Kingdoms, or you. I’m going to keep protecting people. Not because I’m stronger or better than them. But because… I can.”

Jaune moved the sword away from her chest and looked at the scorched earth around them. “I just… I just wanted to help.”

“I know.”

Jaune looked down. “Go,” he said softly. “Do what you need to do.”

Ruby pulled herself. She turned and walked to where Crescent Rose, her posture straightening with every step. She lifted her scythe and faced him again.

“Ruby!”

Both Ruby and Jaune turned to see Weiss running up through the field toward them. She looked around at the destruction of what had once been the eastern wall, confused, but still sprinted up to Ruby, stopping just short of her to catch her breath.

“What happened?” Weiss asked.

“The Faunus?” Ruby asked.

“They’re fine,” Weiss said. “Gave them enough time to escape.”

“Hell yes!” Ruby hugged Weiss. “You’re so cool.”

Weiss blushed but pushed Ruby off of her. “What happened to your Aura? And your cloak?”

“Broke it.”

“You broke your cloak?”

“That too.”

“wHAT?!”

Jaune rubbed the back of his head. “I should go, shouldn’t I?”

“Oh, you’re here too?” Weiss said.

Jaune sighed. “Probably deserve that.”

“Is he… not trying to attack us, or...?”

Ruby looked at him nodded. “Good luck, Jaune.”

Jaune waved back.

“Come on!” Ruby said to Weiss. “We gotta find Blake.” She started running, Crescent Rose was heavy, but she put everything she could into her legs as she ran over the rubble.

“Get back here you dolt!” Weiss chased after her as they started running toward the center of the settlement.

 

* * *

 

Blake fell against a wall, one arm gripping her shoulder wound while the other braced herself up from collapsing. She grit her teeth as she managed to push off and stumble forward out of the alley and into another side street.

Looking down the road, Main Street was only a few doors down the cobblestone path. A wide open space, the last thing she needed right now. Even here between the cramped buildings, there was nowhere to hide.

She tried to keep walking, but a jolt of pain attacked her nerves and forced her to her knees. It felt like her Aura had turned into needles and was stabbing into every pore. It had stabilized after the bullet had pierced through it, but its surface was shaking like a vibrating pool of water, in danger of turning against its host while it tried to recover.

_Gotta get up,_ Blake thought. _I have to--_

Blake’s eyes widened as she heard slow, calm footsteps come out of the shadows in front of her.

“It doesn’t matter where you animals hide,” Ironwood said as he walked up the street facing her. “As soon as I’m done with you, I’m going to hunt them down, and I’m going to _kill_ all of them, one by one, and I’m going to let the last one die slowly, as he realizes that he is the last of his tainted kind.”

He stopped his stride less than a yard in front of her and looked down like she was a piece of trash blocking the middle of his path, annoyed that he was the one who had to bend down to throw it away.

Blake glared up at him, gripping her shoulder.

“What? Nothing to say?” Ironwood said.

Blake coughed. “Rot in hell, Ironwood.”

He pointed the revolver at her forehead. “It’s not personal, kid. Just pest control.”

Blake’s eyes refused to look away from her fate. She stared right back into his cold eyes even as his finger moved to pull the trigger.

The shadows around them lit up. Blake felt the heat spread from her back forward, like a missile was flying from behind--

Ironwood looked up just as Yang’s flying punch impacted across his jaw.

“Yang…” Blake stared up in awe at her glowing savior. Her fluctuating Aura stabilized completely and lit up, ready for battle.

He slid back, trying to turn back only for another punch sending him stumbling back again. Yang kicked the gun out of his hand; it clattered against the cobblestone behind him.

Yang wound back a punch before unleashing the storm. A right and then left then back and forth so fast that Blake could barely keep up with him, her gauntlet like two rockets firing off once per second.

Ironwood’s head and body were flung back and forth with every hit until his robotic arm managed to catch one of the punches. He activated his Semblance and started to drain the fire dripping off her, it turned white as he absorbed it, making it apart of his Semblance.

He grinned as his power--only for Yang’s next punch to be even stronger, knocking him backward, his foot kicking the revolver further behind him, out of the side street into the middle of Main Street.

Yang jumped out of the cramped street like a pressure cannon, lifted both her fists above her head and hit down on his head.

“Don’t Touch HER!!”

The street under him shattered as Yang’s blow exploded through him.

Yang leaped away, leaving Ironwood dazed and still barely standing trying to keep his balance. She rushed forward and started punching him in the face repeatedly, laying into him like a boxer who’d caught her opponent in the corner of the ring.

In the middle of the beat down, Ironwood blocked one of her swings and punched her in the face with his metallic right arm.

Blake ran to the entrance of the street just in time to see Yang blasted back on her back several yards away from him. That punch was powerful, too powerful.  His Aura should have been close to breaking after all the punishment, but he’d become more powerful now than earlier in the fight.

Yang pushed up onto all fours, cracks appearing between the dying flames.

_She can’t win,_ Blake thought. Yang’s style of fighting, her Semblance, it can’t win against him. Blake started running. With every punch, he absorbed more Aura from her than she could damage back.

Yang tried to climb back up to her feet, but Ironwood with a glowing robotic arm, punched her across the jaw again, sending her sprawling back.

Blake ran up to Ironwood swinging her weapon. He reached out and released an Aura blast--a wave of energy hit her, knocking her flying and cracking her skull against the nearest window.

The street around her spun from the impact. Even with her recovery, her Aura was still only barely holding on.

Ironwood sighed and leaned down, picking up the revolver.

“I didn’t come here to kill two of Oz’s best,” he said as he pulled back the hammer, “but I’m flexible. I’m sure helping him regain his influence on the council will help him forgive me.”

He pointed the gun at Yang.

A bullet whizzed down Main Street, between the two and exploded the revolver in Ironwood’s hand. He grunted and gripped his wrist, sharply turning to see where the shot came from.

Blake turned her head with him--Ruby was far down the street, bracing herself against Crescent Rose in its rifle form, looking down the scope at him with a toothy grin on her face.

Capitalizing on Ruby’s shot, Weiss leaped off a nearby roof across from Blake. She summoned a glyph in mid-air, and with a swish of her rapier, swatted it against Ironwood.

He held up his arms and tried to shield himself with Aura as his feet skid across the ground as the blow pushed him yards away from Blake and Yang. The glyph finally dispelled, Ironwood managed to stay on his feet, but grunted from the exertion.

Blake pulled herself up as Ruby ran up to Weiss and Yang.

“Sorry I took so long,” Ruby said.

“Well, better late than never,” Yang said as Weiss helped her up. She turned and fist-bumped her sister.

Blake smiled and walked up to the rest of the team. “You’re all crazy, you know that?”

“Well of course,” Weiss said. “It’s basically our brand at this point.”

Blake smirked and turned with the other three at their opponent.

Ironwood looked down and frowned at his uniform, burnt from Weiss’s glyph attack. He threw off his coat and rolled up the sleeves of his tight black shirt.

Blake lifted Gambol Shroud in front of herself. “He can leech off your Aura just by touching you, so keep your distance… and hold _nothing_ back!”

“Got it!” Ruby, Weiss, and Yang yelled back as Blake and Yang kicked off and charged forward. Weiss slashed her rapier through the air in front of her, drawing a glowing white line that rotated, forming a new glyph while Ruby pointed her scope at the general. He tried to run at the two fighters rushing him, only to be sent stumbling back by a shot to the midsection of his Aura from the sniper.

Yang blasted him twice with her shotgun gauntlets, making him turn his attention away from Blake who ran around him and grappled his neck with her ribbon. She planted her feet and held him in place, just long enough for four of Weiss’s glyphs to form around him, blasting him in a cross of Dust beams. Chunks of his Aura melted off him as he tried to escape.

Pulling her weapon back to herself, Blake fired a clip into his back as all her teammates joined in and started to pour all their ammunition into him. The blasts knocked him in one direction only for another volley from Yang knocking him back again, sparks shooting off him. The bullets and Dust explosions ignited him like a firework display pinned between the four of them.

“ _Finish it!_ ” Blake yelled as she shifted her weapon into its machete-form and started running at him.

“You think you can beat me?! Ironwood yelled while turning around at Blake.

Blake responded by bashing him across the face.

Yang screamed as she charged him with a lamp post she’d ripped out of the side of the street and shattered the bulb under his chin.

He stumbled into the middle of the street and almost tripped over when his feet froze in place, stuck to another glyph placed by Weiss.

Ironwood turned. The four mere children were around him in a half circle, Yang to his left, tossing the metal lamp post to the side and Blake skidded to a stop to his right. In front of him, Weiss was holding her sword out, keeping the glyph stable and him trapped, while at her side--Rose pulled a single explosive dust round form her ammo belt. She loaded it into the chamber and using one of Weiss’s glyphs to stabilize the rifle, Ruby looked through her scope and aimed dead center at Ironwood’s chest.

Ruby grinned and held out her right hand, flipping him off.

Ironwood grit his teeth and rabidly shook his head while screaming at them.

And Ruby fired!

The final explosion hit Ironwood. A wave of orange and red flame burst around his body before the area turned into a cloud of billowing black smoke.

All of Team RWBY took a step back from the cloud and caught their breath.

Blake leaned against her knees and sighed in relief as the smoke cleared in front of her.

“My turn.”

Whipping her head back up, Blake stared into the parting smoke wide-eyed, revealing Ironwood still standing. His Aura was still active despite the barrage they’d put him through.

Pouring his remaining Aura into his legs, Ironwood launched himself to the side with a speed they all thought impossible in his state, directly for Yang. Before she could even flinch, he grabbed her by the throat. White fire exploded out of his back as her Aura shattered, unconscious before she even knew what hit her, the fragments absorbing into his arm.

Yang fell.

Ruby was already running past the stunned Weiss at Ironwood while screaming, Crescent Rose transforming into its scythe form. She swung at him as he casually swatted his right arm, sending her flying and crashing limply against a building on the other end of the street.

Next, he went for Weiss, dashing for her faster than Blake could even start moving her legs to assist her remaining friend. Weiss blocked his left punch with her rapier and then threw out a glyph shield, but his metal arm shattered through the glyph and grabbed her face. He lifted her up and drained her Aura completely before throwing her above Yang’s unconscious body and through a window.

He slowly turned at Blake running at him. “Where were we?” Ironwood said like he’d merely forgotten where he was in a conversation.

Blake swung her machete. Ironwood swatted the weapon away, shattering it. The disassembled pieces of Gambol Shroud scattered around her as her back hit the road.

Inside the building to Blake’s left, Weiss slowly pulled herself up and looked around her in a daze. Her eyes finally focused on the duffle bag discreetly placed at the edge of the room.

Blake scrambled back as Ironwood slowly advanced. He stomped, letting her barely crawl out of the way.

Ironwood smirked and cracked the joints of his mechanical arm.

Blake couldn’t even spare the time to catch her breath. She had nowhere to run, and he was ready to shatter her Aura along with her skull as soon as he got serious again. She looked around for a weapon, a way to escape, anything--catching a glimpse of a white figure running toward her out of the building next to Yang.

Weiss, holding a belt stuffed with Dust grenades made eye-contact with Blake and nodded. She pulled her arm back and threw the belt, a hail mary down the street.

“Hey, Ironwood!” Weiss yelled as soon as she’d made the toss while pulling out Myrtenaster.

Ironwood turned as the belt arched above his line of sight.

Using the distraction, Blake clambered to her feet and started running back, ready to catch the package.

Weiss ran up to the general to stab him, but Ironwood kicked up his Aura, barely moving but blasted Weiss before she could counter, sending her rolling over to where Yang’s body was lying.

Blake caught the belt and turned back, pulled a pin out as she channeled some spare Aura into the throw, and pitched the belt directly at Ironwood’s back--

\--who’s arm bent backward and caught it.

It was like the air was knocked out of her chest. Blake could only look on in disbelief as Ironwood slowly snapped his arm back into place and looked at the belt dismissively.

The general turned between the two sides of Main Street. On one end, Weiss was climbing to her knees next to Yang, still face down against the road, and across from them, Ruby lying against a building, completely defenseless.

He looked over his shoulder at Blake... and smiled.

Blake’s face drained.

**_“RUBY!!!”_ **

She screamed. She screamed like it could somehow stop him. Like it could somehow shatter his Aura. But it couldn’t. All it could do is echo through the settlement as Ironwood casually threw the primed belt toward Ruby’s body.

Thunk.

The belt bounced back at him midair and fell to the ground less than two yards away from his feet.

His eyes widened as a semi-transparent energy dome formed around him. Ironwood looked at the grenades near his feet, then at the forcefield trapping him before realizing…

“That’s enough, James,” a tired voice at one of the side street entrances said.

Ironwood turned to the source, catching a glimpse of his undoing before--

BOOM

Blake shielded her face with her arm, but the entire blast, even the sound and heat of the explosion, were contained in the bubble. It looked like a lowing half-sphere fourteen feet in diameter had been placed in the middle of the street, the only effect on its surroundings being some gravel rumbling around the very edges.

The explosion inside faded and the force field disappeared. A pillar of black smoke plumed up into the air like a dark pillar. Ironwood stood in its center. His body was scorched, his clothes shredded, the edges still on fire.A seven-foot radius around him was reduced to ash, but around his body, his Aura was still holding on, managing to barely shield him from the lethal explosion. He gasped in exhaustion and pain from the strain. His Aura looked like it’d been taped back together poorly and only balancing around his body, almost like a calm breeze would shatter him completely.

“Ozzzpaain!!!” Ironwood screamed through a clenched jaw.

Blake looked over at the source of the footsteps supported by a cane walking out of one of the side streets. Ozpin walked into Main Street across from her and shut off his Aura.  “Miss Belladonna,” he greeted her. “Don’t worry, it’s over.”

Ironwood grit his teeth and looked up, spotting something approaching from the sky.

Three large airships, escorted by a dozen small fighters and medical transports flew overhead, Vale’s colors on their wings. They split into three different directions, one group to the south gate, one inside the settlement, and one into the woods to the east.

Weiss climbed to her feet and looked out at them. What are _they_ doing here?”

“Rounding up the Atlas troops and placing them all under arrest,” Ozpin said looking up with her. “When I saw the arsenal that James was bringing for a raid, I got suspicious of what he was up to, so I called in the last favors I had in Vale for some backup. I asked them to mobilize their fastest ships and remain on standby. When it became clear that he had no intention of leaving any of the Faunus in this settlement alive, I called them in. I apologize that I didn’t earlier, but thanks to you and your team, Atlas won’t be putting up much of a fight.”

Ironwood gasped in disbelief at the ships above him, furious at his friend’s betrayal. His shoulders slumped, and he hung his head in defeat.

_It’s really over,_ Blake thought. Somehow she’d managed to do it. She’d stalled them until help arrived. Just long enough.

Ironwood lifted his head; and glared his bloodshot eyes at Blake.

“AHHHHRRAAAAHHA!!!” Ironwood yelled and ran at her with a burst of speed. Fragments of his Aura flew off him and shattered as they hit the ground behind his berserk charge.

Weiss and Ozpin turned too slow to react to his burst of movement. He was already almost on top of Blake, raising his metal arm to deliver the killing blow.

“JUST DIE!!!” Ironwood screamed as he threw his punch like a sledgehammer.

Blake grit her teeth and braced herself. She raised her left arm in response. Just the act of moving her shoulder with the bullet wound almost made her buckle her knees from the pain tearing through her body, but she pushed through it. Screamed through it--

“AAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!”

Throwing her own punch, Blake's fist flew toward Ironwood's as she pooled the last of her Aura into her hand to match his attack.

The two punches impacted. Thundering Aura energy shattered the air between them. A crack split the road as a sphere of sound pulsed around their fists, building up power ready to be unleashed at the one first one who broke--

The energy exploded back against Ironwood. His Aura shattered like tissue paper as he was flung back.

Ironwood grunted, his eyes almost saying “Impossible” for him. He stumbled, trying to keep his balance, but fell onto his knees, slumped down in front of the young woman.

Blake’s fist was still stretched out, her Aura around it glowing strong like a warm flame. She took a deep breath, stood up straight and shut off her Aura on her own volition.

“Whoa,” Weiss said, watching on with her jaw dropped.

Ozpin lowered his head at the sight of what his friend had become… what he had revealed himself to be.

 

In less than a minute, the Vale soldiers arrived and arrested Ironwood, as well as Team RWBY.  After Weiss and Blake had been handcuffed without any struggle (not that they had the Aura to resist either way), Ozpin approached one of the troops.  “Make sure they are well treated.”

“We picked up Torchwick and his accomplice,” another soldiers said, “as well as Nikos and her team. Three of them were unconscious until we got there, but their team leader came willingly.”

“They were drawn into this without knowing what it was,” Ozpin said. “There is no need to hold them.”

Yang and Ruby were put on stretchers and loaded onto one of the medical ships. Blake and Weiss were allowed to accompany them on the trip back to a hospital in Vale.

Weiss and Blake sat next to each other as the first responders cleaned up their partners, checking their conditions and treating any injuries. Everything had resolved so fast, they sat in silence, almost in a daze, not sure what to say to each other.

“Did we win?” Weiss asked.

Blake nodded as it sunk in. “I think we did.”

 

* * *

 

Raven’s eyes opened. Honestly, she was surprised to even be alive. Everything hurt though, so maybe that would have been better. She couldn't move much, and her Aura was gone. After a hit that hard, it would be a while before it managed to recover.

Eventually, she pulled herself to a sitting position. She turned to face the hills and forest outside of the settlement, looking at the large mountains in the west. The clouds had cleared at the horizon, and she could see the tangerine light of the sun started to set, and despite her breath being visible, the landscape felt warm.

Some footsteps crunched through the snow behind her, causing Raven to look over her shoulder. Ozpin groaned as he sat down next to her and set his cane in the snow at his side.

“Hey,” Ozpin said.

“Hey,” Raven said. “Long time no see, old man.”

“Well, I guess that’s not inaccurate anymore.”

Raven laughed. She looked behind her again. A dozen Vale ships hovered in the sky above the settlement; the sound of lots of commotion was barely audible in the distance.

“I’m taking care of it,” Ozpin said. “The Faunus are being informed that their home, what’s left of it, is safe to return to.”

“Well look at you,” Raven said. “Never thought I’d live to see it.”

Raven looked out over the snow-covered forest with Ozpin. The sun hit the trees, making the scenery almost blend together with the orange sky and sun, a giant glowing field that shone back into their faces.

“It’s not an easy thing,” Ozpin said. “Realizing that after all this time, all the work I’ve put into the Hunters, despite everything I’ve tried to reform, prevent, refine… it didn’t work.”

“Well, you seem fine for someone who just found out their life’s work was for nothing.”

Ozpin chuckled. “I’m freaking out so much I’ve looped back ‘round to sanity. Maybe It’s the first time I’ve been sane in a while.” He sighed and turned to his old student. “I guess you’ve won this one, Miss Branwen.

“Do I get to leave before your boys come and round me up too?”

“No.”

“Well, damn.”

“If it’s any consolation, I’m not getting away with this one either.”

Raven turned to him, the light of the sun reflected off his glasses, hiding his expression.

“I’m giving myself up as well. There’s been too many sins, both Ironwood’s and my own.”

A long pause hung between them.

“I’m sorry,” Ozpin said. “I never understood you. How if you really wanted to help people, you could just leave us.”

“You mean _her_ ,” Raven said.

“I guess I do.”

“I had my path, and Summer stayed with the Hunters,” Raven said. “I wish it was more complicated.”

Another pause.

“I called her a coward. Temper got the better of me… again. I stormed out of our house with my things. Yang was crying. I think I shattered a mug? Okay, a window too. I broke some important things that day. I thought that she was betraying me or something. Tai and Qrow, they could do whatever, but _her?_ She inspired me to be so much more than just another mercenary… I thought she would get it. She was frustrating a lot of the time, but she didn’t deserve what I put her through. She didn’t deserve any of it.”

Raven paused again. She gripped her arm and lowered her head.

“I kept thinking that maybe she wasn’t really dead. Like, maybe they only found her damn cloak, and she would show up one day. Any day. Then I thought that maybe she died defending some kids or something. Something noble, you know? Then I thought that she was on one of your little missions so I would have someone to blame. But, no. She just… died.”

Raven started to tremble. “I never… I never thought that would be the last time I ever saw her. I never thought that would be the last thing…”

_...I ever said to her._

Tears finally broke through, in a way she hadn’t allowed in a long time.

“How could I face her after that, Ozpin?” Raven said through sobs. “After how I treated her, how could I look our daughter in the eye again? I never got to…”

_I never got to apologize._

Tears streamed down Raven’s face, dripping onto the icy ground.

Ozpin looked out over the bright forest. He took off his glasses and allowed himself to accept it.

Together, they cried under the winter sunset.


	32. Epilogue

“When I woke up, I was handcuffed to a bed in a medical ship halfway back to Vale. Just a couple broken places and scratches, but nothing that couldn’t be treated. Blake and Weiss were fine, and Yang hurt her head, but she was conscious by then. They told me that Vale showed up, making Atlas give up without much of a fight, thanks to us, I guess. But we still got arrested though. Teaming up with three known terrorists and attacking Kingdom troops does that…

“So… Yeah. I was put in holding, and now I’m talking to you guys. That’s pretty much the whole story…”

Ruby looked up at her interrogator. The woman across the table from her was finishing writing down the last of her notes. She'd looked bored and professional from the moment they sat down, never showing any particular interest in Ruby’s story. She was an investigator sent by the Vale council to find additional facts or details, not only of Ruby’s team’s alleged crimes but mainly information that could relate to Ozpin’s confession from when he turned himself over to Vale. Even from her cell, Ruby heard rumblings about the scandal.

Now, Ruby had finally caught up to the present after recounting the past half-year or so. She’d stuck to basics--just a summary of her time at Beacon to aiding the White Fang terrorists, as well as her history with everyone involved at Snowdale, while keeping the more personal details to herself.

One of the sleeves on Ruby’s grey jumper was pushed up. She tried to adjust it but stopped as soon as the pull on her cuffs reminded her that they were there. Ruby sighed and sat back in her chair. On top of being contained, she missed her stuff. Crescent Rose had been locked up… somewhere. Hopefully, it was somewhere clean and well lit. It was her baby after all, but she knew she would have to get used to being separated from it.

The investigator cleared her throat and continued the questioning, “Did Ozpin ever inform you of, or recruit you into his extralegal activities?”

Ruby shook her head. “No.”

“Was his use of Semblance against General Ironwood a last resort, or was there another option?”

“I wasn’t awake, but from what Weiss told me, he saved my life. I can’t be mad about that.”

The investigator raised an eyebrow. “Do you think that your upbringing in a settlement contributed to your disregard for Kingdom law?”

Ruby clenched her fists. Just like that, and her perspective was no longer credible, even to Vale’s people. The only thing she could do was laugh, and lean into it. “You got me,” she shrugged.

The interviewer looked at her notes. “I think that should clear some details up,” she said as she stood up. “Thank you for your cooperation, Ruby.”

An officer entered the room and escorted Ruby out.

  


From her prisoner transport, a passing overpass temporarily blocked Ruby’s view of the sun setting behind Vale’s towers. After their interviews had ended, Ruby, Yang, and Weiss were separately joining the rest of the group at a more secure location: An internment prison that Ironwood had gotten the Vale council to open for White Fang supporters, suspected or otherwise.

Outside of her van, Vale was starting to get even crazier. He hadn’t been arrested yet, but Ozpin was facing an impending trial and had been officially removed from the council after his confession and the news of Snowdale. The truth about the Atlas raids was starting to come out. Images of the destroyed settlements were circulating the media and network. Atlas and its council were very eager to distance themselves from Ironwood after the arrest and a “leaked” audio recording of a genocidal rant on the bridge of his ship.

Even with all the new developments, the tension between Vale and the White Fang was temporarily calming down. Talks were starting, now that the Kingdoms couldn’t ignore the White Fang anymore, and the alternative wasn’t worth the cost. What these talks were, Ruby could only begin to guess. Diplomacy never was her forte.

The transport drove through a pair of gates and into the prison complex, the building cast a long stretching shadow that blocked the orange sky. Once they were parked, the back door of the van opened, and Ruby was led outside. She squinted her eyes as she looked up. The prison had been set up in an old but still functional correctional facility near the outer walls of the Kingdom. As the doors of a nearby vehicle opened, a pair of guards led Weiss and Yang out as well. Their eyes lit up when they saw that Ruby was alright, but before they could enjoy the small reunion, they were pushed into a line and led forward.

Inside, Ruby was handed an orange uniform by one guard while another snapped a mechanical armband onto her left forearm. Anti-Aura precautions that stretched legality. When wearing one, if you activate your Aura, you are shocked by lightning Dust fast enough it breaks your Aura before it can fully cover you. Ruby looked between the band and the clothes in her hands. She’d joked a long time ago about matching uniforms for her team, but this wasn’t quite what she had in mind.

After they changed uniforms and were checked for contraband, Weiss, Yang, and Ruby were led into the main area of the prison as a security door slammed shut behind them. A spike of worry spread from her stomach, up her spine to the base of her neck.

Ruby inhaled to halt it from spreading further, and looked up at Yang.

Yang clenched her fists and held her chin up. She looked at Ruby, and nodded, thinking the same thing as her sister: This sucks, but they have each other, and always would.

Ruby smiled and nodded back.

Down the hall from them, Raven, Neo, and Roman were waiting, all wearing the orange prison jumpsuits.

“You survived the interrogations?” Roman called out.

“More like questionnaires really,” Ruby said as their groups walked up to each other.

“You both had it easy,” Weiss said. “Unlike you two, I broke a spy out of their custody, but they didn’t get a word out of me. Trying to find out about Winter and Beacon... those brutes!”

“Oh?” Yang said. “I ratted you out first chance I got.”

“Wha--”

“Kidding,” Yang smirked as Weiss hit her in the arm.

Ruby turned to Neo and asked, “Where’s Blake?”

Neo signed something before remembering and pulling out non-threatening preschool whiteboard and marker and wrote, _“They’re questioning her about Beacon again.”_

“Oh,” Ruby said. She hadn’t seen her since the medical ship and had gotten her hopes up a little on the ride over here.

Raven walked up to Yang. “Are you alright?” she asked while making eye contact with the corner of the ceiling.

“Yeah, I missed you guys though,” Yang said as she pulled Ruby and Weiss under each of her arms and grinned.  It only lasted a moment before her face got serious. “Dad is going to be pissed when he finds out.”

Ruby laughed nervously.

“Oh,” Raven said like the thought had crossed her mind for the first time. “I haven’t seen Qrow in years, and I’ve suddenly turned up with both is nieces in prison. He’s going to kill me.”

“How is the…” Weiss started to ask her, “prison?”

“Don’t worry,” Raven said, forgetting about her brother as quickly as she’d remembered, “I know some Faunus inside who will make it easier for you. After all, everyone here is in this together.”

Yang let go of her sister and Weiss and stood next to Raven.  “So… how are you holding up?”

“Good,” Raven said.

Both of them nodded and stared at different parts of the ground.

“Hey… um…” Raven started. “You know my Semblance? When we get out of here, would it be okay for me to link to your Aura? That way if we get separated, I could find you… If you are comfortable with that… of course.”

Yang looked at her. “Yeah, that’s fine.”

“Are you sure? I don’t want to pressure you.”

“Nonono! Um… I’d like that.”

Raven smiled at Yang and nodded.

“Move along,” a guard yelled out. The group moved further into the prison toward the dining hall.

As they walked, Ruby noticed Neo struggling to keep up with the group through a limp

“Are you…? Ruby said.

Neo smiled and wrote, _“I went a little too hard at Snowdale. The doctor they have here says that it’ll probably be permanent.”_

“I’m sorry,” Ruby said.

_“We dragged you into this just as much as you did us,”_ Neo wrote. _“Probably the only injury I can feel a little pride in.”_

Ruby looked between Neo and Roman. “Ever been to jail?”

“Yeah,” Roman said, “but it’s not like I never expected to be back. I also know some Faunus in here, so don’t worry.”

_“That’s what I’m worried about,”_ Neo wrote.

“Look on the bright side, Red. I’ve received word that our luggage made it to our place in Vacuo, so when we get out of here, we’re rich!”

Ruby laughed. “Yeah, I guess we are. We can also finally get that lunch you owe me.”

“You really are going to keep me to that, aren’t you.”

Glancing over, Ruby spotted Neo walk up to Yang and write something to her with the whiteboard. Yang laughed and brushed her hair back.

Ruby cocked her head to the side. “They’ve been getting along lately.”

Roman looked between her and Neo. “One way to put it.”

Ruby squinted. Yang was standing up straighter than usual and, was she… flexing?

_Wait a minute…_ Ruby thought as the pieces slowly came together.

_WAIT JUST A MINUTE!_

  


After a brief tour of the prison block, Ruby poked a spoon into her tray of food while sitting at a cafeteria table. The rest of her team was still getting a late dinner from the kitchen, luckily the leftovers were still out this late. The walls of the block were lined with two floors of cells in the concrete walls. Looking around, other orange-suited prisoners were loitering or sitting around, talking in hushed tones and a few throwing a quick glance her way. She and her friends were the only humans in the facility, and it had gotten her a few looks.

Weiss returned from the kitchen holding her own tray and sat down next to Ruby. She took a bite, grimaced, but forced herself to eat more. Noticing how Ruby was playing with her own food, Weiss scooted closer and asked, “How are you holding up?”

“Honestly, I’m freaking out,” Ruby said.

“Yeah, this is--” Weiss looked at the food and then at the cells surrounding them “--certainly something.”

“Have you heard anything from Winter?”

“Not yet. I don’t know what this place’s protocol on phone calls is, and I’m pretty sure that enemies of the state aren’t allowed visitors from other enemies of the state.”

Both of them looked down at their trays. Ruby sighed and scooped a large spoonful into her mouth.

“So,” Ruby between bites, “any plans after we get out of here?”

“Get in contact with Winter, obviously,” Weiss said. “I also want to find Velvet. We have some unfinished… stuff.”

“Oh, yeah,” Ruby said. “I never got to talk to her. She was into photography, right?”

Weiss nodded.

“You think she’ll still want to do some photo shoots with you?”

“Something like that,” Weiss said. “If she’s still up for it.”

“Rose!” one of the guards called out while approaching the table. “You have a visitor.”

Ruby looked at Weiss and then up at the guard. “Alright,” she said as she slid over her tray and stood up.

“Hey,” Weiss said.

Ruby turned back to her friend.

Weiss opened her mouth to say something, but shook her head, keeping it to herself. She lifted her arm and held out her fist toward Ruby. “See you later.”

Ruby smiled and bumped her fist against Weiss’s before being escorted away by the guard.

She was taken through another security door into the section of the prison for the guards’ offices and facilities. They walked down a long hallway until the guard stopped and opened one of the doors for her. Ruby walked in, and the guard closed it behind her, waiting outside.

The plain office only had a small table next to one of its walls and a man standing in the far corner by the window. Ozpin turned away from the cheap blinds and faced Ruby.

“Have a seat,” he said, motioning toward the pair of folding chairs on either end of the table.

Ruby looked at the nearest seat and took a step forward. She pulled it out from under the table and sat down.

Ozpin slowly sat down across from her. He set his cane on the table and took a deep breath, a silence settling between the two as they faced each other.

“I’m sorry,” Ozpin said. “I didn’t want any of this, but the council wouldn’t agree on helping Snowdale unless I brought your team in as well.”

Ruby nodded. She understood; there was only so much he could do now, and she would rather he save the settlement than waste the last of his influence on her. “I appreciate it,” she said. “Even though I’m stuck in here and all.”

“I may no longer be apart of the council, but I still hear things,” Ozpin said. “The White Fang is pressuring Vale to release all seven of you as well as shutdown this internment facility. Finally, something I agree with them on. I don’t want to get your hopes up, but I don’t think you and your friends will be here long.”

Ruby leaned back in her chair and sighed in relief. “Thank goodness,” she said. “I mean…” She laughed nervously and rubbed the back of her head.

Ozpin chuckled. “It’s an understandable reaction.”

“I guess it is.” Ruby sighed and set her hands on the table. “I heard Professor Amber disappeared.”

“She vanished during the raid. Wherever she's gone, she’s off the grid. In hindsight, I’m surprised she stayed around as long as she did. Amber gave up on Hunters long before either of us.”

“What about Jaune and the guys? What happened to them?”

“Miss Nikos is dropping out of Hunter training. Arc might follow her. I’m not sure about Miss Valkyrie and Mr. Lie, but when I talked with them, they mentioned transferring to one of the academies in Mistral or Vacuo.”

“I wish those four wouldn’t split up.”

“I hope so as well.”

Another silence fell between them. Ozpin wrung his hands together before looking up at Ruby.

“Miss…” He inhaled and looked her in the eye. “Ruby, I have wronged you. I looked for your mother in you, and I let that blind me to who you really were. I’ve made a lot of mistakes, but I felt like I needed to apologize personally for… hurting you with my poor guidance.”

Ruby looked down. She’d hoped it wasn’t true, but she’d suspected for a while.

“No matter how hard I tried,” Ozpin said, “my legacy will be one of failure. I can only pay for that now.”

Ruby shook her head. “I’m not going to let you get away that easily.”

Ozpin raised an eyebrow as Ruby looked back up at him.

“You’ve done a lot of bad things. I probably can’t even begin to understand it all, but you can fix it… Weiss told me about what you did for Snowdale. I heard about your confession. I think there’s good left in you. I thought I lost everything that made me who I was, and I’m honestly not sure who I’ll become, but I can’t let that scare me anymore. So, don’t you _dare_ give up either.”

Matching her stare, Ozpin was a little wide-eyed. He smiled and whispered, “All I’ve ever wanted was to run away. The reality of Hunters, your mother’s death, my failures… I think you’re far stronger than I ever realized, Ruby.”

The guard knocked on the door before opening it. “Times up, sir,” he said.

Ruby stood up and followed the guard out of the office. As she stepped through the door, she looked over her shoulder at her old headmaster.

Ozpin stood in the center of the room, his cane still on the table but taller than he’d ever looked before. He faced the doorway, and the young woman in it, and bowed his head.

“Thank you,” Ozpin said with a smile he’d thought forgotten.

  


Ruby was escorted up the stairs to the second row of cells back at the block. Everyone had been ordered back to their cells for the night, with Ruby being the last to arrive. As she walked in front of her guard to her open cell door, she glanced into the cell next to her’s. Blake was sitting on the bed, wearing an orange jumpsuit. She looked up and made eye contact with Ruby through the bars as she passed by.

As Ruby moved into her own cell, the guard called out, “Close cell door B-12, and lights out!”

The bars slid shut, echoing as the electrical lights flicked off, casting the entire block into darkness.

Ruby blinked to adjust her eyes as she walked over to the wall to her left and looked at it. She slid her arm along it until she pressed herself against the corner against the bars.

Sliding down, Ruby sat on the floor and gripped one of her hands on a bar.

“Hey,” Blake said, quietly, just the wall between them.

“Hey,” Ruby said back to the girl sitting just behind her. “I talked to Ozpin.”

“Oh?”

“He said that the White Fang is trying to shut this place down.”

“Alright,” Blake said. “Let’s hope it works.”

“Yeah.”

Ruby couldn’t help but think back to the last time they saw each other. She’d been knocked unconscious before the end of the fight, unable to help bring down Ironwood. She’d failed to protect anyone. If it weren't for Ozpin intervening, her team might not be around anymore. If only she’d been more careful, she wouldn't have been caught by surprise that easily. There were too many things she could have done better, not just at Snowdale.

“ “I’m sorry,” ” they both said.

“Wait, what are _you_ sorry for?” Blake said.

“I lost my Aura before I could back you up.”

“I was the one who underestimated him. It was my plan. I was the one who dragged you into a fight with the Atlas military in the first place. It’s my fault.”

“The only reason we were all there is because I ran off with Neo and Roman.”

“Well, I should have done more to talk you down before I decided to project my issues with humans and the Kingdoms on you when we fought at Beacon.”

“I shouldn’t have been trying to beat some sense into you! The only reason you ran off is because--”

Blake started to laugh, breaking off the end of the conversation.

“What?” Ruby said, smirking.

"I should probably stop making my flaws a competition, huh?"

Ruby chuckled. “Yeah, same here. The debate is over. Both of us are wrecks.”

Blake laughed. “I think we’re even.”

“Really?”

“Yep, all canceled out. Time to start over,” Blake said as Ruby heard her shifting up. “My name’s Blake. What’s yours?”

“Ruby. It’s nice meeting you,” she laughed.

Ruby reached her hand through the bars, sliding her hand as far as she could between the cells. Reaching for nothing in particular, she just wanted to be closer.

Her fingers brushed against Blake’s, also reaching her hand between the cell. Ruby felt around until she grabbed Blake’s hand, Blake squeezing her’s in return.

“Once we get out of this, let’s go on vacation,” Blake said.

“Just the two of us?” Ruby asked.

“Yeah, it’s a date. First thing, we’ll stop off at Patch.”

“Nice.”

“I mean, you won’t shut up about that island, so I might as well see what it’s like for myself.”

Ruby laughed. “From the mountains at its center, you can see all the way to the Vale coast, It’s a beautiful view.”

“I’m assuming there’s a beach. I don’t think I’ve ever gone to the beach,” Blake said.

“We’re in the middle of winter,” Ruby said.

“Not when we get out of here.”

“Oh right. This summer then.”

“Hopefully _this_ summer…”

“Wait, what?”

“You know any good secluded places?” Blake changed the subject. “You know how I am about crowds.”

“There’s a cove that me and Yang would hang out in,” Ruby said. “Patch isn’t much of a tourist trap, so it’s pretty easy to get away from people.”

“That sounds nice. We can lie some towels down and sunbathe,” Blake hummed. “And then from there, we could go to Vacuo.”

“We can take a boat,” Ruby said. “It’d be like a cruise, and you’ll get really seasick I bet.”

“Speak for yourself.”

“Nope.” Ruby shook her head. “I’m going to have to take care of you the whole trip because you’ll be useless. Puke city here we come.”

Blake laughed. “Ever been to Vacuo?”

“Nope.”

“Me neither.”

“Awesome! We’ll get lost.”

“See the sights,” Blake said, “maybe just spend a whole day in a hotel, never even leave the room.”

“Yeah,” Ruby said. “Barely even get out of bed…”

“We can send a postcard to Weiss and Yang, and I’ll dramatically cut my hair, so when we get back they’ll be shocked.”

“You should totally do that!”

“Do you think I could pull that look off?” Blake asked. “I’ve been curious about going really short.”

“Absolutely,” Ruby said. _God yeah, you could pull that off,_ she thought. “And we’d be gone so long they would think we moved there.”

Blake laughed. “Imagine us getting an apartment together.”

“We’d probably nail the door shut, knowing us.”

“Heh, we could make our own bean bag corner.”

“I miss that corner,” Ruby said.

“Cooking together and just sitting on the couch. Not really doing anything. Just letting the afternoon go by,” Blake said.

“You’ve put a lot of thought into this.” Ruby grinned.

Blake cleared her throat like she always did when she was trying to hide a blush.

"Sounds nice," Ruby said. It sounded really nice. An image of Ruby coming home after a long day came into her mind like a pleasant dream. Blake would be waiting for her at home after a long day, leaning against the table as she sipped on a warm mug. She would have her hair cut short, and by then, Ruby would have grown her's out. Their eyes would light up when they saw the other, and Ruby would run up and hop onto the table while Blake looked up at her, both laughing at something the other said, just happy to finally be together.

“You really want that?” Blake asked, pulling Ruby out of her daydream.

“What? The vacation or moving in with you?” Ruby laughed nervously.

“All of it.”

Ruby’s face flushed red. “Uh-huh.”

“Then let’s do it,” Blake said. “You and me. That future… Let’s make it!”

Ruby gripped Blake’s hand and nodded.

“Right!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that took longer than I expected. After so much time working on this thing, having it all finished and out is weird, but I'm glad I managed to do it.
> 
> I've started to work on a much shorter follow-up that will focus on Weiss's reunion with a certain amateur photographer, so if you're interested, keep an eye out for that in the next... who knows. I need to work on writing speed.
> 
> I hope you've enjoyed Hollow Legacy. Thank you for reading.


End file.
